Heroes of the day
by metawohoo
Summary: Alya tries to reconnect with other Akuma victims, and discovers some lingering issues to the whole "supervillain" business. In the meantime, Marinette misplaces Tikki, and Adrien's relationship with his father grows tense.
1. Chapter 1

Alya stared at her screen, scrolling up and down Aurore Borell's website again. And again. And again. It was very "Aurore" in that it was turquoise with polka dots and frilly little lace borders on every div and button. It was very pretty. No one had thought of designing it so the contact form could be found.

She sighed and gave up, appending every variation of "contact-me" to the website's URL until she found the correct address. The form was frilly and pretty too. There were people out there who had the knack for web design (if not ergonomics) Marinette had for fashion. So Alya typed her invitation, making sure to include a short explanation of who she was, what her blog was about, and why she wanted a meeting to happen. Then she added "P.S. : please tell your webdesigner he is very talented!". Then she hit submit.

Well. There. She had tried. It was a bit more scary than asking Alix and her brother, or Nino. Aurore was an older student (when she actually showed up to school, seeing how busy she was with her career), and a star. Then again, Alya was not easily frightened, and journalism and shyness did not mix.

Now that the email was sent, she could only hope for an answer. She was cautiously optimistic: Aurore Borell would probably be interested. She was trying to recover from her defeat against Mireille, and gathering all the press she could. A great many people had made the connection between her and Stormy Weather, and Aurore was owning up to it, making frequent appearances on television to tell her tale over and over again. "I'm so very grateful to Ladybug and Chat Noir", she would say, "and I think it's important to put all the good they are doing under the spotlight. They are saving so many people out there, including their enemies. Not everyone would have the compassion to do that, so I can't say how much I admire them and what they do". She was also vying for a position as a news anchor.

Maybe Alya's blog was not very big yet, but she had a decent following, and any publicity was good publicity. Obviously. Or Aurore would not have been parading around reminding everyone of her time as a supervillain.

She would probably say yes.

###

Adrien always sorely missed Ladybug when she wasn't patrolling with him. And the rest of the time. But especially when she was not patrolling with him. And even more especially when a flying Akuma-possessed villain appeared. It was not that Chat Noir wasn't competent to catch them. He was. He absolutely was. Sure, he had not gotten to the actual "purifying of the akuma" part (which Plagg would have to explain at some point), but it was very good at the "breaking the corrupted thing" part. As for the cleansing, Adrien figured that Plagg would volunteer the relevant information if Ladybug didn't get there in time. If the little pest did not, Chat Noir would just find a box and wait. No, he did not need Ladybug. He did fine on his own. But he missed her, and he had to admit she had tools he did not, like a very very long and very very useful rope-type weapon, which would have come in handy now that his classmate Marinette was falling to her death.

Why, why, why, why, _why_ did the fights always have to happen at his school or around it? What was so special about the place? Did Hawk Moth suspect Chat Noir's identity, and target his friends on purpose? Alix, Alya, and Nino transformed, and Chloe and now Marinette attacked? It couldn't be a coincidence. Of course, with two Akuma possessions a week, and that just in Paris, the people he knew were bound to be impacted.

He threw himself after Marinette and tried to catch her mid-fall. What he would catch to break their fall after that was anyone's guess. At worst… He was fairly bouncy as Chat Noir. He could cushion the crash.

 _Ladybug, where_ are _you?_

"Don't worry, miss!" he told Marinette as he caught her.

"Nononononowhere…" she replied, barely looking at him and digging through her purse.

It was a weird thing to do while free-falling from the Tour First, but they were being attacked by Feathertail, the Gliding Possum Man, which kind of redefined weird.

"It will be okay", Adrien added, slightly louder, so she would focus on him.

Then he rolled under her, since there was nothing to grab around them. The tower's sides were sleek glass and metal. Chat Noir _did_ try to inch closer to the building, but even then, all he could do was scratch the walls and bruise his fingers in the process. They were going way too fast. There was no way to catch hold of anything.

"I'm _not_ using you as as a pillow to save myself!" Marinette exclaimed.

That was the longest sentence she had ever uttered while talking to him, and he definitely appreciated the sentiment, even if it was a bit useless.

"Don't worry. I always land on my feet."

"Not if I believe the videos on Alya's blog!"

Chat Noir winced.

"I'm pretty bouncy", he mumbled, wishing they had hit the pavement thirty seconds earlier. He would have preferred to die thinking his cred was undamaged. "So what is it you were looking for in that purse?"

"My qu-"

Someone threw a fire hose out of a window, and Adrien grabbed it, swinging from it and sending them crashing into a glass window, somewhere on the fifth floor. Marinette's sentence ended as a "aaaaAAAAAAH".

He made sure she was unharmed, then patted her shoulder.

"Wait for me", he said. "I have to go. I can't play possum when the villain does, can I?"

And, on that note, he ran to the broken window and started climbing to the roof.

###

Alya grabbed her phone as it buzzed, hoping for an email from Aurore Borell, and finding a text instead. Her sisters swarmed to her, trying to read over her shoulder, in case it was Nino. She had mentioned her friend once, and she was now doomed to be the lead character in her siblings romantic fantasies. The girls had not even met Nino, but he "sounded nice". Alya thought he _was_ nice, and had told them so (because she was not a liar), but little girls had selective hearing and they did not recognize the word "friend". It was like "privacy": probably latin.

The text was from Alix.

Her brother had changed his mind.

Alya frowned. On a purely professional, bloggery point of view, this was annoying. The meeting would still include Time Breaker, and the Bubbler, and maybe Stormy Weather, and of course Lady Wifi… But the list was growing shorter, and it was more difficult to track down Akuma victims she had not seen in action. The real names of the freed "villains" rarely ended up in the news.

On a personal point of view, she was not sure she was that unhappy not to have to see Jalil again. He could be unpleasant, even when he was not trying to use her as an offering to the gods.

She snorted and swiped the notification away.

Her youngest sister froze.

###

Feathertail was easily disposed of. It was just a matter of breaking the possum keychain he was carrying. Simple enough.

Freeing the zoo employee from Hawk Moth's spell proved more difficult.

There had been some transforming back and forth. And long-winded discussions with Plagg. And some shouting. And a great many attempts at purifying the Akuma. At some point, Chat had managed to somehow transform Feathertail back into himself, and some of the damage to the city had been repaired, but not nearly all of it. As for the Akuma, it had shown a few sparkles of light, but quickly turned back to its dark, gloomy self.

Adrien had locked it in a box.

He planned to give said box to Ladybug as soon as she surfaced (it couldn't be soon enough). He would meet with her on their patrol route that evening.

She would know what to do.

"How come we haven't ever practiced _this_ part?" he asked Plagg, who was wolfing down some green cheese Adrien had found in one of the Tour First fridges.

"Because Ladybug was already there when I picked you, and you needed to be strong where she is smart."

"She is strong!"

"You had a lot of potential for combat?"

Adrien let out a long suffering sigh.

"Please finish this quickly. I want to check on Marinette. I need to transform back."

"Can you get me more cheese?"

More cheese was found, and Chat Noir soon managed to locate Marinette, who was waiting for him in front of the tower, all of her things spread on the pavement. She was slouching, and putting everything back into her purse, item by item.

"Lost something?" he asked.

"You could say that. Are you okay? Did you manage to turn the… Butterfly normal again?"

"You could say that", Chat Noir replied, wincing behind his mask. "I can help you look, if you want."

"No, it's fine, my, err, thing is probably home."

He looked at her. She looked more dejected than he did, and he felt fairly dejected.

"I can walk you there, then. It's on my way."

She gaped at him.

"You know where I live?"

 _Smart, Adrien. Very, very smart._

"Your school is all the rage with Akumas lately", he joked. "I'm starting to get a good idea of who everyone is. I mean, you got Time Breaker, and Lady Wifi, and you are friends with that girl with the blog so you are on it a fair lot. And your parents ran ads on it."

"They did?"

He grin.

"They did. I should try those macarons, by the way. Shall we go, my lady?" he finished with a bow.

She flushed and mumbled an answer, and followed him.

He found a fire escape and showed her the way across the roofs for a whole five minutes. Then he swooped her off the tiles and carried her all the way to her parents' bakery, so they didn't have to trek all over the city for hours. There was some protesting, but he paid no mind to that, and she quickly stopped asking to be put back on the ground. She looked at the city under them instead, as he bounced from roof to roof.

"Don't look down!" he warned her.

She chuckled and gave him a sly, amused look.

"I'm not afraid of heights."

She was definitely more confident when she was not talking to a boy.

The flaw in that thought quickly occurred to Chat Noir.

 _She is definitely more confident when she is not talking to Adrien Agreste._

 _You idiot._

He blushed and went silent, focusing on the roofs, the chimneys, and all of the things he would do better not to crash into. She studied his face.

"I thought you'd be more talkative", she commented, looking concerned. "You never stop talking, on Alya's videos."

He stumbled and awkwardly hopped from room to roof until he regained his footing. Thankfully, she didn't panic, because any flailing would have sent them back to a free fall situation.

He cleared his throat.

"I, uh."

That sly, amused look of hers kind of multiplied and morphed until he was absolutely sure she had won whatever it was that they were doing.

"Don't say it", he warned, because he had a pun-sensing seventh sense.

She beamed.

"Cat got your tongue?"

He chuckled.

"I figured you'd be _less_ cheeky."

"Why?"

"This, my lady, is a level of sass only reached by the masters. And this is your home, isn't it?" he said, pointing to her house.

She nodded.

"Which window?" He asked.

She pointed, and he helped her into… Pinkness. He gaped and nearly dropped her.

"Thank you!" she exclaimed. "Wait here!"

She ran out of the room, and down the stairs - he could hear her footsteps thundering down - as he looked around.

It was _very_ pink. Tidy, too. Pretty. A thousand shades of girly. Very, very Marinette, for what little he knew of her. There were fashion drawings all over the place, too, all of them excellent. He spotted scissors, a sewing machine, needles and thread, half-finished clothes, and a few scarves that looked absurdly familiar because he owned an identical one. He had gotten the exact same for his birthday.

He crossed the room and picked one up, to check. It was unfinished, still attached to knitting needles. It looked like it had a flaw, and had been abandoned midway. The part that was done was just the same as his own. Same colors, same thread, same everything. He bit the inside of his cheeks. He remembered his birthday very well. He kind of remembered Marinette fumbling to talk to him in the morning, too. And remarking on the scarf the next day.

Maybe she sold them.

And maybe Hawk Moth was a benevolent hero and the whole Akuma situation was a big misunderstanding.

 _Thank you so much, dad._

Marinette raced up the stairs.

"Still here?" she called.

He grinned and turned to her.

"Yup."

"Macarons", she announced, handing him a box. "As a thanks for saving my life."

He was still smiling, but frozen into place. He didn't quite think of _answering._

"You, err, said you'd have to try them?" she pointed out.

That snapped him out of it. He smiled and solemnly took the box.

"Thank you so much", he said, opening the box and tasting one of the pastries. "Wow. Wow, those are _good._ "

She chuckled.

"Feel free to come and buy some any day. You'll get a fair discount."

He grinned, ate another macaron, then turned to the clothes.

"You make those?"

"Y-yes. I'd like to work in fashion, in time."

"Looks to me like you have a fair chance to make it. Do you sell those scarves? I kind of like them."

"Ah. No. I mean, I've sold a few simple things, but the scarves are custom made for friends, and they take so much time to knit that they would be… Cost prohibitive, that's the word."

He stared at the unfinished one.

"Some people would pay a lot for custom made clothes, you know?" he muttered, lost in thought.

 _Thanks, dad. Thanks._

She grinned.

"I guess I'll see that at some point", she replied. "I'm sure I have a fair chance to make it if I keep working hard."

He smiled - it felt empty - and curtsied.

"Totally agree. On that note, miss, I need to run. I'll be late for patrol and I don't want Ladybug to think I'm slacking off."

"Of course not! Thank you again."

"Don't mention it!" he replied, running to the window with the pastry box under his arm, and jumping out.

###


	2. Chapter 2

It had been a long day for Marinette.

It had started at night, with an Akuma to catch at four in the morning, on a school day. Then again, Morning Rooster had kept a lot of people awake with his crowing (except Chat Noir, who had left after their patrol, at two, and had not reappeared when the Akuma had tried to get all of Paris out of bed). After a long and exhausting chase (flying villains were always hard to catch), Ladybug had freed the poor night watchman from the clutches of Hawk Moth, raced home, showered, and crawled to school.

If Alya asked her how being turned into a mummy had felt again, Marinette would now have a convincing answer.

She had been exhausted all morning. Tikki had been exhausted too, and - as far as Marinette knew - had spent the morning resting in her purse. Until the zoo employee the biology teacher had brought in to discuss mimesis in exotic animals had found himself possessed by an Akuma. Which was when Marinette had noticed that Tikki was nowhere to be found. Now, how an attack with a flying possum inspired villain had ended with Marinette being kidnapped and thrown from the Tour First… It was a long story. Chat Noir had tried to catch Feathertail, and Feathertail had used Chloe as a human shield, and then Marinette seemed to recall Chloe had hugged Chat after being rescued. While Marinette was being dragged away.

She had not been able to transform.

Tikki had not reappeared after that fight. She had not reappeared, period. Marinette had never been so worried in her life. Her Miraculous still reacted to her transformation attempts: it sparkled. There was still some magic in it. But Tikki was gone, and there was no way to track her down. Marinette was so used to just having to say her name to see her emerge that she had no idea how to find her now that she was gone.

The teenager had looked everywhere. Her room, the rest of the house, the streets around it. She had taken the bus to Tour First at midnight, to check around the place too. Then she had taken another bus to her school, and slipped into the deserted building. She still hoped Tikki had been trapped somewhere during Feathertail's initial attack: a locker, a closet, a trash can… Anywhere she could easily be freed from.

But she was nowhere to be found.

At three in the morning, Marinette had taken a taxi to the Champs Elysées, and climbed on a roof with the faint hope to catch Chat Noir during his patrol. She needed help. She could not worry about her secrets when Tikki was in danger.

But Marinette had obviously arrived too late: Chat Noir never showed up. She did not have Ladybug's mobility and could not cross half the city to follow her fellow hero's most likely route, either. She had barely managed to climb on the first roof to begin with. She had _no clue_ how to contact him without being transformed, either.

She would have to find a way to get in touch with him, and fast.

###

Nino never minded being dragged to a secluded location by his favorite friend of the opposite gender. It tended to happen a lot, always for non-romantic reasons, but never for boring ones. Not that he would have minded boring reasons either. Nor romantic ones, if he had to be honest: he was fairly certain no boy in his right mind would have minded romantic, secluded escapades with Alya. But it was never romantic: lately, they only ever met about the blog, or the upcoming ex-villains meeting.

Which was probably why she was nearly dislocating his shoulder in her hurry to drag her away from the other students.

"So, hum, is this about the meetup? Did Aurore Borell reply to your email?" he asked when they finally stopped, in an empty classroom on the third floor.

Alya looked around them, then peeked out of the room, checked to the right, checked to the left, and closed the door.

"No. Yes. I mean _yes_ , she has replied. She says she'll come if she isn't busy. Jalil canceled. But that's not why I need to talk to you."

"Okay. Is something wrong?" he said, because it was obviously the case.

In a school prone to Akuma attacks, with friends who were as prone to villainization as you were… It was always a good idea to worry. Marinette _had_ been abducted by that flying squirrel-possum guy just the day before, after all. And Alya kind of had weekly dates with Ladybug.

She started to gesture.

"No. Yes. No. _I don_ _'t know!_ ", she exclaimed, throwing her arms up. Then, she quieted. "There's something I have to ask you."

"Alright, ask away?" Nino replied.

By that point, not only was he worried, he was starting to get a dark sense of foreboding.

She put on a large nervous smile.

"Has anything strange happened to you, lately?"

"Define strange."

She cleared her throat.

"Strange, err, 'bubbly'."

Nino frowned.

"Bubbly."

"Bubbly."

He stared her down.

"Has anything strange happened to _you_ , lately?"

She hesitated. She checked her phone, then looked around, and shook her head.

"Not here."

"We can't possibly find a quieter place", Nino pointed out. "No one is going to overhear."

"I know. But the cell reception here is terrible!"

Nino's eyes went wide as he remembered Lady Wifi's weakness, but he didn't get a chance to ask questions. Alya grabbed his other arm and raced out of the room, eyes riveted to her phone's screen. He followed her from room to room (not that he did have much of a choice) until she found the full wifi icon she was looking for, in the chemistry classroom.

Then, Nino allowed himself to be mildly annoyed.

"What is happening, Alya?"

She took a deep breath then deflated, looking guilty.

"I'll just show you", she said, going to the blackboard to pick a chalk up.

She threw it in the air and quickly swiped her phone's screen. A pink, luminous "pause" icon flew out of the device and hit the chalk in mid-air. It froze into place.

Nino gaped.

Alya cleared her throat.

"It is going to fall soon", she explained. "I tried it over and over again, it never lasts long."

As if they had heard her, the icon vanished, and the chalk started moving again, continuing on its trajectory towards the back of the room. It fell into a sink with a metallic noise.

Nino gaped some more.

He forced himself to snap out of it.

"You still have _powers_ ", he commented, looking at the sink.

He was not going to get answers if he did not ask questions, however. He turned to Alya.

"Since when? I mean, did you keep them all along?"

"No! No, it started yesterday afternoon. That's why I'm asking you if you have noticed weird things. I think I'll ask Alix too, and her brother."

"Do you… Do you transform, too?"

"Not that I know of. It's just, you know, this."

She swiped the phone's screen again and Nino found himself paralyzed.

"AH! Sorry, sorry!" Alya exclaimed, tapping the phone, swiping it again, and sending icons flying everywhere without managing to free him.

The icon wore off on its own.

Nino pursed his lips and took a second to recover his cool.

"Maybe you should practice a little before you, uh, use that phone", he advised.

"Maybe you're _totally_ right. So, so sorry."

"Have you told Ladybug about this?"

"Not yet. I mean, I will put a message on my blog, so she contacts me, but I'll have to keep it vague."

"Let's do that _now_ ", Nino said. "Like, please give me that phone, and tell me how to update the website, okay?"

Alya sighed.

"I'm not getting that phone back, am I?"

###

Hawk Moth targeted the temperamental. The impulsive. The reckless.

The villains his Akuma possessed tended to be brash and histrionic. Tikki had seen enough of them, over the course of centuries, to be familiar with most of them. The clothes evolved, the powers _looked_ different, but the possessed themselves tended to fall into recognizable categories Tikki had seen a thousand times before. Stormy Weather, Windblast, Gale, Mistral. Pigeon Man, Falconer, Tawny Owl. Pharaoh, Thor, Persephone. The years passed and the appearances adapted, but the themes never quite changed. Neither did the motives behind the transformations.

Tikki had been at it long enough to know the brash and histrionic were not the only types of foes Ladybug had to face. To Hawk Moth, bursts of anger were a blessing, because it gave his Akumas an easy way into a person's mind. They made people vulnerable, easy to twist. But anger came in many shapes, not always as fierce, but sometimes more dangerous than flares of burning rage.

The cold anger was the worst. It was what gave the world monsters like Hawk Moth. It made for calculating enemies who planned your demise for as long as it took to put you into serious danger. They would hide in the shadows until they could get at you, and you never saw them coming. Which was exactly what had happened to Tikki.

She had just wanted to fly around during Marinette's recess. A little bouncing around a deserted hallway, yawning in exhaustion after the cleansing of Morning Rooster's Akuma. She had not seen anyone around. She had _felt_ someone, but it had been too late. Invisible hands had closed around her a second later, then she had fallen into darkness.

The Kwami had woken up in a room with no windows and concrete walls, in a cage made of what looked like running ink, except it was solid as steel and would not let anything through, even when Tikki tried to change form as if she had been returning to the Miraculous.

There was still someone around.

There was still no one to see.

"Oh, you are awake", a voice said from a chair at a desk a few feet away.

The chair looked empty. The desk was covered in notebooks, stray sheets of paper, and pencils, which gave Tikki a fair idea of her abductor's "category". There was also a large ink stain on the floor, pure black. It shifted. And then Tikki saw it: the shimmering of an invisible body, who was crossing legs and standing up. The ink pooled under the woman's feet, then twirled around her leg, settling in a spiral around her invisible body. Her clothes appeared next, going from transparent to paper white. She wore a cape and a hood over pale violet hair, and her mask was tattooed in black, dripping ink on her face.

You could also see Hawk Moth's magic glimmer around her eyes.

Tikki shifted away in her cage.

"Who is Ladybug?" the woman asked, walking up to her.

"Who are _you?_ " Tikki snapped back.

The stranger smiled.

"You can call me Plot Hole. Now, let's start over. I want to know who Ladybug is. I _might_ treat you slightly better if you volunteer information about her secret identity, but let us be clear: I will find her, and I will take her Miraculous. And then I will find Chat Noir. It will be easy. Not just easy: beyond simplistic."

"I won't tell you a single thing", Tikki swore.

She was used to that kind of intimidating speeches, just as she was used to foes of Plot Hole's kind. Writers, novelists. People who had lived frustrating lives, seeing every door closed in their faces, regardless of their talent, and who had grown bitter and hateful. They were planners. They were _always_ planners: their mind was just wired that way.

"Aaaaw, that is an absolute _shame_ ", Plot Hole railed. "I suppose I will just have to walk around that college I found you in, and investigate whomever is looking for you. I reckon there is a young lady out there who is desperate to find you right now."

Tikki said nothing. She prayed for Marinette to have gone to Chat Noir already. He was their only hope.

###

Adrien had slept one hour, and that only because Plagg had run out of strength and reverted the transformation. Without Chat Noir's energy, the teenager had crashed.

He had tried to track Ladybug down the entire night, running from one side of Paris to the other (vertically, and horizontally, or did you say "from north to south and from east to west"?). She had not been there, but she did not always patrol. That being said, with two Akuma attacks in one day, it was surprising that she had not checked in with him. So, Adrien had searched for her, all over town, going as far as to drop by police cars to ask the cops if she had been spotted in town. Of course, no such luck.

Adrien was worried.

She had made it out of her fight with Morning Rooster just fine. He had checked. She had been on the news. He had watched the footage a few times and then some. Maybe she was not interested in what had happened with Feathertail? Maybe she trusted Chat Noir to handle things properly?

That was unlikely.

He had no idea how to contact her. They just always seemed to stumble upon each other (except at night, where their meetings were never accidental because Adrien had memorized her patrol route through stealthy stalking. He had never patrolled before, just wandered around, but he happily let her believe he was a conscientious super-hero with an organized schedule).

As far as he knew, he only had two ways to get in touch with Ladybug: be in the news along with a life-threatening situation, or go for the second best option: networking.

He would have to find Alya and get her to post a message on that fanblog of hers. He knew Ladybug followed it, just as he did. She would react to a direct contact attempt.

Of course, when he arrived at school, Alya was nowhere to be found.

He tried to ask Marinette (and felt himself blushing, as it was Adrien doing the asking and he was all too aware of a freshly discovered crush), but the only answer she gave him was that she was looking for Alya too.

"Icouldcall her if you, uh, ah, wantokay?" Marinette blurted out.

He pressed his hand to his mouth to swallow a yawn.

"It's okay, thank you. I'll send her an email if she's out sick", he replied.

There was a lull.

He had thought of the scarf, a little. He was not wearing it: it was rolled up in his bag. Maybe its origin was all a lie, but it was still precious, handmade, worth caring for. Adrien just wished knowing it was Marinette's work and not his father's gift didn't sting as much. He had to talk to his father about it. Probably to Marinette too.

He couldn't quite find the courage to do that now. His thoughts were not in order, anyway. It could wait.

He smiled.

"Thanks for the help", he said. "See you later!"

She nodded for much longer than was necessary, and he walked away, the back of his neck feeling very warm and very pink.

Then he sat at his desk, and waited, and waited, and waited.

###


	3. Chapter 3

Alya and Nino reappeared at the end of the morning recess, which meant Adrien did not get an opportunity to transform and corner Alya. Instead, he returned to class and fidgeted on his chair for two hours. Behind him and Nino, Marinette and Alya started talking as soon as their history lesson started.

"We need to talk. We really, really need to talk", Marinette said. "There is something very important going on."

"I need to talk to you too", her friend replied. "I have really big news!"

Nino cleared his throat.

Adrien did a double-take, staring at his best friend and at Alya in turns.

No?

Well, they _had_ vanished for several hours, and the simplest explanation was often the correct one. And Nino really liked Alya. Now, he had never said he wanted to date her, but… Adrien could see it happen. They were both nice, and supportive, and kind, and caring. They got along perfectly. Adrien was used to seeing them talk, and Nino kept being dragged into Alya's "investigations". If they were to date, no one would be surprised. It would not be a big reveal either, now that Adrien thought about it. Just a "oh, of course, it makes sense".

Marinette gaped. He could feel it.

"You-" she started.

"No! Actually _important_ news!" Alya interrupted. "I-"

The teacher cleared her throat.

"Alya. Maybe you could explain how Lenin managed to build a communist dictatorship?"

"Err, err, yes, yes, of course", the girl stuttered. "He, ah…"

Adrien and Nino winced as she tried to remember the topic, and mixed several dictators, leaders, eras and countries in the process.

The girls didn't try to continue their conversation after that.

To Adrien, who wanted nothing else than to turn into Chat Noir and to get his message on Alya's blog, the lesson seemed to last forever. He already knew everything there was to know about Lenin. His father did not want his photo shoots to impact his grades, so Adrien had been meant to study the year's curriculum in his free time. He had the next three months covered, which was not nearly as much as he had promised to prepare, but there was only so much homework and reading he could fit into his days. Crime-fighting was a time-consuming activity.

As soon the bell rang, he ran out, clutching his messenger back, and tried to find an empty room where he could turn into Chat Noir. It was lunch break, however, and there were students everywhere. The bathroom was packed full, the classrooms were not entirely deserted, and the places that were supposed to be quiet had been taken over by couples who wanted some privacy.

Adrien kept searching, and felt Plagg slowly and discretely crawl up his shirt.

"Pretend you don't hear me", the Kwami said.

The teenager nodded, frowning.

"There is an Akuma somewhere close. I can feel it. It's in _someone_."

Adrien looked around, but all of the students looked normal. Some were sulking, but none were angry enough to be akumaized. There were no fancy costumes either, and no attacks.

"I see nothing", he mumbled, pretending to yawn to have an excuse to cover his mouth.

For a long moment, Plagg remained still. It was unlike him.

"Near the staircase", he said.

Adrien looked in that direction. There were students going down the stairs and towards the exit, and a group of girls gossiping and giggling. No one suspicious.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!" his Kwami snapped.

The teenager crouched and tied his shoelaces, waiting for the crowd to clear a little. Once he was done, he pretended to look for his phone in all of his pockets, then in his bag. Then, he "browsed the internet" for a while. Group by group, the people left.

"It's going towards the cafeteria", Plagg said.

No one was.

"Can Akumas turn invisible?" Adrien asked, scratching his nose.

"Of course they can. Stop talking. It stopped moving."

Now, that was very useful information, which could have been provided in those "lessons in evil-fighting" Plagg had never given.

 _It_ _'s watching me._

The best thing to do was to play it cool. If an Akuma was watching Adrien, so was Hawk Moth. The teenager put his phone away and walked towards the exit, waiting for Plagg to update him on the enemy's location.

"It isn't moving", the Kwami announced. "It isn't moving, it isn't mov… It's walking away."

"Cafeteria?"

"Yes."

Adrien faked a phone call.

"Can it feel the Akuma in that box in my pocket, like you are feeling _it_?"

The Kwami thought about it.

"The Akuma in the box doesn't feel like an Akuma anymore", he commented.

"Can it still see me?"

"Yes. Yes. Not anymore. It's behind that corner."

Adrien was alone. He transformed, and Chat Noir raced across the hallway, turning that same corner. At first, he saw nothing, but his eyes were much better than human ones. He caught it: a silhouette was shimmering a little farther away, and moving. It looked like heat haze. He pounced.

He landed on a woman - though she was still mostly invisible, so he could only feel her hair on her shoulders, and guess her general shape. She tried to get away, pushing him up with both feet, but he kept a firm grip on her. Black ink pooled under them, spreading over the tiled floor, much to Adrien's surprise, as he had no idea where it came from. Then, the ink turned into a hole.

"Holy _moley_!" Chat Noir exclaimed, bouncing up, and trying to pull his captive away from the hall.

It was in vain, of course: he needed his hands to keep _himself_ from falling into that pit. His opponent quickly freed herself and let herself sink into the hole, which shrunk to a tiny circle of thick ink.

 _Oh, perfect. Alya traveling from phone to phone was not tricky enough, we needed an invisible lady who can vanish into the floor._

The ink stain slithered away, enlarged again, and the silhouette jumped out of it. The ink wrapped itself around the villain's legs, then her abdomen and shoulders, leaving large transparent gaps.

"I was not exactly looking for _you_ ", the woman said, "but you couldn't be more welcome, just like a prestidigitator during a child's birthday party."

 _And bad metaphors. Of course._

Alright, maybe it wasn't a bad metaphor. Adrien had no idea. He had always wanted a birthday party, but he did not remember wanting a magician. Was it a thing?

"Who _are you_?" he asked, trying to come up with a way to catch her before she could vanish into her ink again.

She clicked her tongue.

"Weren't you ever told that curiosity killed the cat?"

 _And cliche idioms. That metaphor? Totally terrible._

"Now that you mention it, ten times or so, just today."

Did the ink work as well on uneven terrain? Better check. Chat Noir pounced again, and rolled as soon as he and the Akumaized woman hit the floor. He could not let her touch the tile. He jumped to his feet and threw her through a window, following her outside. She had landed on grass, and her ink was sinking into the dirt. Chat Noir grinned.

She turned invisible again.

He groaned. It was going to be a long day, after a long night, and a long afternoon, and he was tired. And he needed Ladybug, because what was he going to do with _two_ half cleansed Akumas?

 _Alya, if you could blog this right now, that would be nice._

An Akuma attack _would_ lure Ladybug out, now that he thought about it.

Transparent Woman used the handful of seconds he spent musing over that to give up on staining the grass, and spray ink over him instead. He dodged, dodged again, and landed straight into a black pool on flat terrain. He fell into it, barely escaping capture thanks to his stick, which gave him a _little_ more range to catch the borders of the hole. Falling for that again (literally) would be a bad idea, so he rolled to the safety of the grass square next to the school's entrance.

"Surrender", the supervillain said. "You are outmatched, outclassed-"

"And out-thesaurused."

A ball of gooey ink smacked him in the face. He stumbled and fell flat on his back.

"You cannot see me. Thus, you can neither fight me nor catch me. Now, we are both well aware that you are the one with the pointy ears, but let me be very clear: you are the mouse and I am the cat, here. Surrender, and hand over your Miraculous, or you will be handed over to Hawk Moth, who is not nearly as understanding as I can be with misguided, yet reasonable young antagonists."

"Err… I don't think that works as a synonym for 'enemy'", he pointed out, earning a kick to the chest.

Which left his foe wide open to being tripped. He kicked one of her ankles, grabbed the other, and pinned it to the ground.

"A.", he said, smirking. "Do you always talk that much? B. Consider yourself surrendered."

He started to quote the purification incantation Plagg had taught him the previous day, hoping it would work better now that he had more or less figured it out. In other circumstances, he would have broken the corrupted item that contained the Akuma, but he had a strong suspicion it was the ink. How did you even break a liquid?

"Consider yourself defeated", Invisible Woman snapped back. "You leave me no choice."

"Wh-"

"DEUS EX MACHINA!"

Adrien blinked, and saw a shadow cover them. From above. Growing closer.

Then the anvil hit them.

###

"I really don't want to lie to Marinette about this" Alya told Nino, who had led her out of class the instant the bell had rang, so she could not talk to her best friend.

"I'm not asking you to lie to Marinette about this, I'm asking you to wait until Ladybug knows about it. Maybe she will want you to keep the secret. Maybe there's a danger we don't know about."

"I just… She would tell me! And she won't tell anyone else!"

They both looked at Marinette, who was was watching them from afar, fidgeting and clearly waiting for Alya. She was giving them a smiling grimace and waved when they turned to her.

"Maybe you should see what _she_ wants to talk about", Nino remarked. "It looks urgent."

"I think I'll do that. And I told you I paused my _little sister_ , didn't I? My whole family knows. It's been nearly twenty-four hours, too, so the news probably traveled to every kindergarten and elementary school in town."

"At least tell me they won't put it on the internet."

Alya went silent. Nino grimaced.

"I set a blog up for each of them", she ended up admitting. "And pinterest accounts."

"Alright. Well, you couldn't guess this would happen, I suppose."

"I told them it was my scoop and _if_ they did not leak the news, I'd have them participate in the demonstration video I plan to post on the Ladybug blog."

"How long do you think it will stop them."

"Forty-eight to seventy-two hours. Maybe longer if you volunteer to distract them."

"Err… How am I supposed to distract several little girls?"

"Have you seen Frozen?"

She heard him swallow.

Marinette looked about to explode, and was trying (and failing) to stop herself from gesturing. Alya was growing worried.

"I'll talk to you later", she told Nino. "Marinette really needs m-"

Alix and Nathanaël ran into the hallway.

"ALYA! CHAT NOIR IS FIGHTING SOMETHING!" she shouted.

"In front of…" - Nathanaël panted, obviously not as fit as a girl who lived on her skates. - "Of the school."

The blog was clearly growing popular if some people's first reaction in case of a villain attack was not to hide, but to get Alya to investigate it. She glowed with journalist pride, thanked them, and started running.

She arrived at the school's doors just in time to see Chat Noir be hit in the face by a ball of black goo. She immediately started filming. There was a fight going on, but you could not see the villain at all. You could hear her, however: she was gloating. Chat Noir retorted with quick wit and took a blow, but he used the opening to catch his enemy (or so Alya assumed). Alya looked around, confused. Ladybug was _always_ there when a villain was about to be defeated. Always. She was the one who caught the "Akumas". She was the one who repaired everything. She had not been present when Chat Noir had fought Feathertail, and the entire ritual - as far as Alya had seen from the footage in the news - had been difficult for the young superhero. It was clear he _could_ do it, but that he still had some progress to make.

She tried to inch closer to get better audio. Neither Chat Noir nor his invisible opponent talked loud enough to understand what they were saying. Until the villain screamed "DEUS EX MACHINA", of course.

Nothing seemed to happen. Then there was a shadow. Alya looked and filmed up, and shouted "Move!" at the unsuspecting Chat Noir, but it was too late. The gigantic anvil was moving too fast and landed on him with a sickening "THUMP".

Many people winced. More panicked. Alya gaped in horror.

 _Chat Noir is fairly resilient, right? Right?_

He had taken a few nasty blows since he had started his crime-fighting career. A few nasty falls, too. He had always gotten out of it fine.

The anvil looked heavy, though.

It moved, shook, and sank back into the ground. Then it moved again, wobbled, and turned into ink. It splashed on the ground and sank into the dirt, vanishing. As for Chat Noir, he was lying face down in the grass, in a hole of his exact shape. He groaned, and looked up.

"Aouch", he hissed, propping himself up. " _Aouch_."

He stood, looking around, then dropped to the ground again and clawed at the dirt.

"Has anyone seen an invisible woman?" he asked, turning to the students who had been watching the fight.

He sighed when they all shook their heads. His shoulders sagged.

"Gone, then."

Alya walked to him, still filming.

"Are you alright? You took a fairly heavy blow here."

He looked up, dispirited, but his eyes widened when he saw her and he jumped to his feet.

"You. You! We need to talk", he announced, picking her up. "Now!"

###


	4. Chapter 4

It was a team.

Tikki should not have been surprised. It was rare, but she had seen it happen. Villains who were collected enough not to immediately show themselves were also cautious enough to ensure they would be at an advantage. Some aggregated. It was easy for them to find each other. They were connected through Hawk Moth. Through Makko. Your could feel her magic all around the Akumas, and see it clearly every time Hawk Moth talked to his victims.

Makko. The reason why, this time around, all of them Kwamis had gone their separate ways before picking their heroes. The less they knew… Well, the less they knew, the less they stood to lose. Tikki was aware Plagg was close by - if the presence of Chat Noir had not been a dead giveaway, the recurrent disappearance of every form of cheese from Marinette's schoolmates' sandwiches would have been enough of a hint - but they had not tried to find each other. No heroes but Marinette and Chat Noir were active, however, which meant Zetta and the others were either waiting, either very discreet.

Tikki hoped they were waiting to be needed to resurface. It made sense for the others to rest as long as Hawk Moth could be handled by Ladybug and Chat Noir. If one of them was to fall, well… The other Kwamis would come to the rescue. In the meantime, maybe there was no point exhausting themselves. You never knew when you would need all of your magic at once. They could never allow themselves weakness again.

Of course, that was what she _hoped_. What she _feared_ was that losing Makko had hurt them so deeply that they needed to step away for a while.

But it was just a fear, wasn't it?

The second Akuma had come in an hour after Plot Hole had vanished through a pool of her corrupted ink. It was a boy, a teenager, probably around Marinette's age. He had arrived nearly hopping into the room, which was unsurprising, since he was wearing a rabbit costume. It was not very different from Chat Noir's: brown suit, mask, and rabbit ears over tousled hazel hair.

He did not notice Tikki at first. A pink butterfly was shining around his eyes, and he was giving short answers to whatever Hawk Moth was saying. It was a short conversation, and the possessed boy went straight to the desk afterwards, opening the bag he was carrying and spreading a pile of photographs in front of him. He looked at them all, grinning, then went to pin them on a wall. Tikki recognized the faces on the pictures. All of them were class portraits of students from Marinette's school.

The boy took a set of markers and started writing on the wall, drawing lines between the students, adding question marks and notes.

Then, he spotted her. His eyes went wide.

"You are the Kwami!" he exclaimed.

Tikki pretended to be mute.

"I have SO MANY QUESTIONS!" the teenager said, running to her cage. "What is your name? Where are you from? What kind of creature are you? Are there many of you? How long have you been around? The videos on the Ladybug blog seem to imply Ladybug has been around for millenniums, but that doesn't mean it was the same miraculous all around. Are you a magical species? A fairy? A spirit? How are you born? Are there more of you? Oh, duh, I'm an idiot. Of course, there is more of you. There is Chat Noir, so there is another Kwami. What is his name. It is an 'he'? Are you romantically involved? Siblings? Friends? Rivals? Enemies? Frienemies? What does he or she look like? How did you recruit Ladybug? How did he recruit Chat Noir? Are the titles hereditary? Maybe they are. That would be so cool, having Ladybug be the grand-grand-grand-and-so-on-daughter of the Egyptian one! Was there an Egyptian Chat Noir? What did he look like? What was his costume like? Was he revered as a god? Egyptians liked cats, right? What kind of enemies were they fighting back then? Was Hawk Moth there too? Did they know the pharaohs personally? Cleopatra? Other important historical figures from the next centuries? I mean, was there a Ladybug during the French revolution? Did she interact with Napoleon or others? I've tried to find signs of her in history books but there is nothing. Maybe she can erase herself like she erases the damage caused by her enemies? Can she? That would be interesting. Or maybe it's the same powers but not always the same hero name, that would work too."

He froze, his excitement dying down at once. His face twisted in rage.

"WHY AREN'T YOU ANSWERING?" he shouted. "I NEED TO KNOW!"

He stomped his foot and started banging on Tikki's cage. She flew right to the middle of it not to be shaken by the blows.

"ANSWER, ANSWER, ANSWER, ANSWER!" the boy kept screaming.

She was saved by Plot Hole's return. Ink pooled on the floor and the woman jumped out of it, slouching, looking about to pass out. She straightened up when she saw what her partner was doing.

"Will you stop that?" she snapped. "The despicable creature is intent on keeping its secrets. What little information you could extract from it would not serve our purposes."

The boy moved away from the cage, sulking.

"What happened to you?" he asked, pointing at her grass-stained clothes. "You are dirty."

"Nothing of import. I crossed paths with our foolish feline foe. Did you find out who Ladybug is?"

The teenager rocked on his heels, and grinned.

"I can make a good case for every student. Do you want to hear my stories?"

"Please, please, please filter out the unlikely ones. We don't have all year."

He huffed and rolled his eyes.

"I had _great_ theories."

Plot Hole took a deep breath and her ink spread over her until she was entirely pitch black.

"Do not tempt my patience, lad!"

"Test."

"What?"

"It's 'test' one's patience. No wonder your novel was rejected."

Plot Hole's ink slipped away from her and coalesced into a thick blob that flew across the room and hit the boy like a cannonball. He crashed against the wall.

"Ow! Touchy much?" he mumbled, massaging his shoulder.

The woman dropped onto the chair and leaned over the desk, panting. She was exhausted to begin with. Using more magic in that state had been a bad idea.

"Discard the unlikely candidates, and I will listen to your other theories", she muttered.

The rabbit-boy perked up and ran to the wall, removing picture after picture.

"We can forget about everyone who was turned into a villain, for a start. I'd remove the boys, but I'd have to pin them all back once I get to Chat Noir's identification. Let's just pretend they are not there."

All of the photos of boys turned black. Tikki froze. He was an illusionist _too_. She should have guessed. It was an artist power, mostly. The people who imagined worlds and could picture them clearly often obtained powers that made good use of that trait. Copycat was a good example of it: he had been able to make himself nearly indistinguishable from Chat Noir. Plot Hole's invisibility was fairly simple next to that. It was very useful, but it required no imagination whatsoever. Changing reality was something else entirely.

The Kwami watched the corrupted boy as he pulled more pictures out.

"Chloe Bourgeois was seen unmasked as a cosplayer, and I spotted the hippie girl in the background of a Ladybug video along with the two redheads. Now, that Rose girl is a suitable candidate, as well as the goth one, and several girls in their last year, and the cute Asian girl from the Bubbler's class."

Tikki froze.

"Very well. Expose your theories", Plot Hole replied, in an annoyed tone.

So the rabbit-boy did. Tikki listened to various versions of Ladybug's origin story, and reacted to none, even when the teenager came up with a near accurate summary of her first meeting with Marinette. Plot Hole was studying her reactions. Tikki did not betray her worry, however, and the villain ended up throwing her hands up.

"Fine. We go after all of them, then."

"I have a plan for that!" her partner exclaimed. "I have all of the dialog tree written for all of those girls, too."

"Do you now?" Plot Hole replied, rolling her eyes at his bragging.

He grinned and held his hand up. A perfect copy of Tikki appeared in his hand.

"Oh, Plot Hole!" the illusion cried out, looking terrified. "I thought I would never escape. Please, you have to come with me."

Tikki threw herself against her cage's bars, hoping that her captor's exhaustion would be enough to allow her to escape.

###

Marinette watched Chat Noir scoop her best friend of the ground and climb to a roof with her, then start gesturing.

She called Alya, and saw her look at her phone and hang up. Marinette called again, and Alya swiped left again, and Marinette called again, and Alya swiped left again, and so on and so on until they were both aggravated. Chat Noir looked confused, and tried to convince Alya to pick up, which she ended up doing.

" _Please_ call me back later", she said, at the same time as Marinette shouted: "GIVE YOUR PHONE TO CHAT NOIR!"

The superheroine saw them both freeze and turn to her, as she had been loud enough to be spotted from the other side of the street. She waved from her spot at the second floor math classroom's window.

"Just give him the phone", she repeated in a softer voice. "I have a message from Ladybug."

Chat Noir snatched Alya's phone.

"What's the message? Is she alright? Where is she? What happened? Why did-"

"She says her Kwami went missing", Marinette cut in. "She can't transform."

Her partner froze and stared at her from his perch on the roof. Even at that distance, she could see he was horrified. His body language gave it away. He was paralyzed.

"What?" he gasped out after nearly a minute of silence.

"Her Kwami is gone. I don't know anything else. She says she will meet you tonight, on the fourth stop of her third patrol route. Do you see where that is?"

Chat Noir jumped all the way across the street, landing on the sidewalk right under the window, then climbing up.

"When did you see her?" he asked, grabing Marinette's shoulders and shaking her. "Did she give you any way to contact her?"

"N-n-n-o", she replied, pushing his hands away. "She just gave me the details for that meeting tonight. She said you would know where to go."

He ran his hand through his hair, and pulled on it.

"Yes, I know, but there are _things_ going on, and… This can't be happening. This is bad. She didn't leave a phone number? You don't know who she is at all?"

Marinette's stomach twisted in guilt. She _had_ to tell him. There were reasons to hide who she was she couldn't quite understand, some kind of unease in Tikki when Marinette asked about the previous Ladybugs and how they had handled their secret identities. Some fear, even. Of course, in situations where Marinette's identity had nearly been exposed - like when Alya had gotten her hands on that history book - Tikki had been the picture of ease and confidence, acting as if recovering the book was no big deal. The secret had to be protected, but… The Kwami had not given specific reasons why. Marinette was convinced that, if she decided to reveal herself to Chat Noir, Tikki would not object, and tell her it was the correct decision. Tikki would be supportive regardless of Marinette's choices, and make the best of it.

Still. Ladybug had existed in various incarnations for over five thousand years. Why was so little known about her? Why the silence?

Marinette was not sure she could tell Chat Noir. Not yet. She had to think about it. A few hours would not make much of a difference, if she changed her mind. He would be looking for Tikki on his own for the rest of the day anyway.

"I don't know. But she'll meet you at sunset, and she'll wait until midnight. You can talk to her. You can fix all of this."

"The fourth stop of her third patrol route", he recited, voice strangled.

"Yes."

He nodded, nervously rubbing a hand over his cheek.

"Did she look okay?" he asked. "Unhurt?"

"She was just like a normal girl."

Chat Noir started pacing.

"How can you be sure it's her?"

"We met when Stormy Weather attacked the city. She repeated something she told me back then."

"That's not enough. Anyone could have overheard."

"She says you are allergic?"

He crossed his arms.

"Allergic to what?"

"Feathers."

"I _might_ be starting to believe you."

She sighed.

"Please… Just… Try to go and meet with her. I think she really needed you. She says her 'Kwami' just vanished yesterday, without a trace. And now there's that invisible enemy of yours, and maybe _she_ was the reason the Kwami went missing."

"Why couldn't she wait and meet with me HERE?" he ranted, still pacing. "I don't get it."

"She couldn't risk talking to you with the invisible villain unaccounted for. She told me… She can't be caught at the same time as her Kwami. Something like that."

Chat Noir pulled at his own hair again.

"Alright. Alright. Thank you very much, Marinette. You were a great help", he said, jumping out of the window and running off towards the end of the street.

She sighed. Now, all she could do was cross her fingers, find herself a good mask, and go to the rendez-vous point.

"Marinette?" Alya's voice said. "Marinette!"

The teenager looked down at her phone, startled. She had never hung up, and Alya was still talking to her. Marinette pressed her phone to her ear.

"Could you get someone with a big ladder to come and help me?" her friend said. "I'm kind of stuck."

Marinette gasped and looked out. Chat Noir was gone, and he had forgotten about Alya, who still perched on the roof of that other building. She waved.

###


	5. Chapter 5

"Thanks for coming, all of you", Alya said, leaning over the circular coffee table around which her fellow ex-villains were assembled. "I know it's short notice, but something _big_ happened, and we really need to talk. All of us."

She had called them all after the firemen had gotten her off the roof. Chat Noir was going to receive a bill and a strongly worded letter about not abandoning schoolgirls on top of three floors high buildings, she had been told.

She had not minded Chat Noir forgetting about her, because his distraction had meant she had been privy to his entire conversation with Marinette. The news she had overheard had been so bad that she had pushed up the meeting with the other Akuma victims. They needed to do _something_. At the very least, they needed to tell Chat Noir and Ladybug about any powers they had, because it was probably related to that "Kwami" who had vanished, and because if Alya had magic, it was likely the case for some of the other ex-enemies of Ladybug.

She had not even waited for the fireman to arrive to reschedule the appointment: she had called everyone right from her roof: Nino, Alix, and her brother (who had been working and had hung up in her face). She had sent her classmates after Aurore, who had been in school that day, and they had tracked her down easily enough. She was being interviewed about her opinion of the strange fight between Chat Noir and the villain who could turn invisible. Alya had tried to corner Marinette, but her best friend had all but fled after the firemen's departure, convinced her parents would be worried if she did not run home to reassure them.

Alya and the others had gathered in a deserted teahouse. All of the students had been sent home early due to the attack on the school, so it was the middle of the afternoon. Most people were still at work or at school, so their group had the place nearly to themselves. They were alone on the second floor.

"What we were supposed to discuss today was the aftermath of our… Transformations", Alya said. "The backslash, if there is any. The impact on our families, on ourselves. But… I needed us to meet earlier because something is happening. Because I believe we need to talk not about the past, but about the present. I think something is very wrong. I think our powers might be coming back. And, if it has happened to some of you, I want us to go to Chat Noir."

Alix shifted in her chair. Aurore looked up, looking prettily confused, and batted her eyelashes. Nino just looked at Alya.

She sighed.

"Alright. I guess I'll have to show you", she said, picking her phone up. "Nino, please?"

Nino threw a sugar cube up.

Alya paused it with a swipe on her phone's screen. It was strange how the entire interface changed to play/pause buttons as soon as she thought of using her powers.

Aurore's eyes went wide. Alix gaped.

"Oh, wow."

Nino raised his cup of tea and held it under the sugar cube until it fell.

Alya pointed at the cup.

"Now that the big reveal is out of the way, I have to ask… Did _you_ get some power back?" she asked the others. "Or am I the only one?"

Neither Alix nor Aurore replied. They just stared at Alya, waiting for someone else to answer. Nino cleared his throat.

"As I have already told Alya, I don't know. The only bubbles I saw lately were in by bath-"

"YOU WERE THE BUBBLER?" Alix exclaimed.

Nino groaned.

"So I've been told. I'm sorry for the whole forced dancing thing. And kidnapping your parents and/or older brothers."

Alix waved her hand.

"No need to apologize for Jalil."

Nino blinked, then composed himself.

"Anyway. I haven't noticed anything weird with me, no bubbles growing out of size, nothing."

"You could _try_ ", Alya pointed out (not for the first time).

"Well, yes, yes, of course, I could try to see if I'm able to make giant bubbles that fly up to the stratosphere with people in them", her friend said in a polite, casual tone. "Now, why would I _want_ to?"

He had a point.

"I'm with Nino", Alix said, rubbing her gloves. "I mean, you remember what Time Breaker did, right? She made people _disappear._ That's scary!"

Alya frowned, taking a closer look at those gloves. They were thicker than usual, and… Yes! There was something else underneath. She grabbed Alix's arm and pulled on that "something else": pink cleaning rubber gloves.

"Ahah!"

Alix snatched her hand away. Alya immediately took a step back, feeling guilty.

"I, uh, sorry, I shouldn't have."

"So I was worried it could happen again, _so what?_ " her classmate snapped.

"I'm _sorry_! I… It's just… I still think we should contact Chat Noir. Even if nothing has happened to you, or to Nino, or to Aurore. He can answer all of our questions. He can make sure it _will_ not happen to you again?"

"Why _Chat Noir?_ " Aurore asked. "Wouldn't Ladybug be the logical choice?"

"I think there is something going on with that invisible supervillain and Ladybug won't be as easy to contact. And Chat Noir reads my blog, too, he told me so. I can just post a note about us having a problem, and I'm sure he'll drop by."

If he was not kept busy by Ladybug's inability to transform. It seemed like quite a bad time to waste his time with residual superpowers issues, but it was also the most important time to do so. The whole thing _could_ be related to whatever was happening to Ladybug.

Alix grabbed Alya's phone.

"So, you have all of Lady Wifi's skills? You can teleport and everything? You can transform?"

The blogger shook her head.

"No. No, I can only pause things. And not for long, at that. And I didn't think of _trying_ to travel through phones. How do you even do that?" she asked, poking her phone's screen. Her finger did _not_ sink into the glass. "And, the costume… I don't know. Do I just _wish_ for it to appear?"

"Err", Nino replied.

"How do the supervillains do it?", Alix wondered, proving that she had not bothered to read the blog, because there was a three pages description of the transformations reversal on it, complete with illustrations. "I don't remember how I did it."

Alya crossed her arms.

"Well, there's a wave of blackish-violet magic that just covers the villain and sort of 'paints' the costume on h-"

"You have to get angry", Aurore cut in, sipping on her tea.

They all whirled to her. She gave them a cutesy, innocent smile.

"You just have to get angry", she repeated. "Not the kind of angry that makes you stupid, of course, and angry for the good reasons. Could you please 'pause' the door, Alya?"

The teenager swiped her phone screen, gaping, and blocked the door.

"As I was saying", Aurore continued, delicately putting her cup of tea down, "it needs to be the good kind of angry. The righteous. The fair. The 'I can't _believe_ they are turning children into monsters' kind of anger."

A pink glimmer spread over her fingers and moved up her wrists and arms. It left her naked skin covered by white gloves, up to her shoulders, where her dress changed shape and merged with the gloves. The pink sparkles spread faster, erasing the polka dots of her dress, spreading over her face and hair. An aquamarine mask painted itself around her eyes. Her hair turned turquoise and aquamarine. Her pigtails twirled like candy cane.

The costume looked slightly less evil in those hues.

She beamed.

"And then you transform. I suppose you can call me 'Sunny Weather'."

###

Chat Noir raced straight from the school to his home, or nearly. He had to turn back to retrieve the bag he had abandoned before his fight with the Akuma, but it only took a minute or so.

He transformed back into Adrien a street away from his house, and ran the rest of the way, with Plagg stuffed under his shirt. He walked briskly to the kitchen (there would be no running inside the house, unless you wanted more of you father's disapproval), grabbed all the cheese he could find, and hurried to his bedroom. He locked the door, dropped the cheese on his desk, and let Plagg gorge himself on it.

"What happens if the other Kwami has been captured by Hawk Moth?" Adrien asked. "How bad is the situation?"

Plagg burped and looked up.

"Well, it should be fine. She wasn't in Ladybug's miraculous when she was caught. We'll get her back."

And he focused on a piece of Caprice des Dieux.

Adrien's nerves couldn't take it.

"SHOULD BE FINE?"

"Yes. Hawk Moth can't force Tikki to do anything without the miraculous."

The teenage superhero idly noted that his Kwami knew the name of Ladybug's companion, which Adrien did not remember ever hearing.

"Well, he could force her to tell him who Ladybug is, for a start."

Plagg paused and stared at him.

"Not _Tikki_ ", he replied, serious for just that moment.

Then he jumped on some Reblochon.

Adrien groaned and sat down. He was terrified for Ladybug who was out there, alone, with no powers, while an invisible enemy was on the loose. She was vulnerable and she _would_ be targeted. What if the ink woman had found her escape? Adrien would have to wait hours to find out. He considered returning to Marinette to try to jog her memory. Maybe she had spotted something recognizable on Ladybug in her civilian form, something that could have helped find her.

He turned his computer on and searched for the phone number of Marinette's parents bakery. He called, making sure to hide his own number.

Mister Dupain picked up.

His daughter was not home. Adrien pretended to need help with his homework, promised to call back, and hung up.

Of course, he did not have his classmate's number, note even her email. Nino and Alya would have it, of course. Probably. Maybe.

"You need to relax", Plagg commented.

"Relax? Relax? WHY WOULD I RELAX? I don't know if you have noticed, but there's a woman possessed by an Akuma out there, and Ladybug cannot transform, and _also_ ", Adrien finished, grabbing his school bag and getting the box he had locked Feathertail's Akuma in, "I am not _able_ to free the butterflies by myself."

He was about to slam the box on the table, next to Plagg, but settled for slowly but icily putting it down, what with it containing a living creature.

His Kwami stared at the box.

"It's empty", he said.

"What?"

"It's empty. I can't feel the Akuma."

Adrien blanched and opened the box. The butterfly was gone.

"No. Nonononononono", the teenager moaned.

He had not done a single thing right without Ladybug. The new villain had vanished, the Akuma had vanished, he… Had left Alya on that roof, hadn't he? And, more than that, he had no idea what to do.

"Could it have escaped in school?" he asked. "Could it have possessed the woman I fought earlier?"

Plagg shook his head.

"I could feel the two of them at once", he explained. "It probably got out of the box while you were fighting."

Adrien cringed.

"Or the woman freed him after our fight."

"That's possible too, but I'm not sure. Normally, Akumas are connected, but you broke the link that one had with Hawk Moth. He wouldn't have been able to track it down. Maybe the ink lady felt it when you were in the same room?"

"We're going back to school", the teenager exclaimed, stuffing Plagg into his shirt inner pocket. "And you and I are going to comb the entire building, and the block if we don't find that Akuma. We need to find it before it possesses someone else!"

###


	6. Chapter 6

Marinette got out of the bus on the Champs Elysées and made her way to the Italian restaurant where Ladybug was to meet Chat Noir after sunset. She climbed the fire stairs to the roof, made sure no one could see her from the street, and changed. She had bought a Ladybug costume. You could get them in toy stores. You could get them in costume shops. They were very easy to find. They were, however, not cheap. Being able to calculate the cost of the materials, and in perfect position to know that Ladybug's permission had never been given, Marinette that some people in the merchandising world were more devious than Hawk Moth himself. Had she been consulted, a lot more of the profit would be making its way to charities.

The pricing issue aside, the costumes were fairly accurate. A little lacking on the armored side, but accurate. Marinette was pretty sure Chat Noir would not be able to recognize her, which was the most important thing.

She had come very early, so she sat on the chimney and watched the sun, waiting for the minutes to pass.

Not five minutes passed before Chat Noir dropped right next to her?

" _You can transform again?_ " he exclaimed. Then he took a long look at her. "Or not. You are _cosplaying_ yourself?"

She booped him on the nose to push him away.

"I'm glad you are early", she said. "We really need to-"

He pulled her into a crushing hug. He didn't let go. She was not in a position to hug back because he was pinning her arms to her sides. She felt herself blushing.

"Hum. Err. Chat Noir?" she croaked.

"I'm glad you are okay."

Marinette's cheeks adopted a new color, indistinguishable from her costume's.

"That's, err, very nice", she replied, clearing her throat and pulling away. "And we really need to talk about Tikki going missing."

He let her go, but kept his hands on her shoulders.

"I suppose she vanished right after you took down Morning Rooster?" he said. "Before Feathertail appeared?"

Marinette nodded, more to clear her thoughts than to answer. She pushed her partner's hands away, stood, and paced. He stared at her, disappointed at first, then he noticed her blush and turned pink himself. On a purely practical side, it was great that their meeting had been pushed up by a few hours. Marinette felt like she had lost enough time fooling around already. On the other hand… She could have done without the bright afternoon light.

But she could not allow herself to be flustered.

"She was out of my sight for a grand total of five hours. At most. I didn't have the slightest lead until today, when I saw you fighting that supervillain with invisibility powers. I mean, Tikki is careful. She would not let herself be tricked. But if she was caught unaware, by someone she could not see…"

"That sounds likely. Plagg can spot the Akumas, though. That's how I knew that woman was in that school."

"Maybe Tikki could not defend herself? But… That new enemy is the only lead I have."

" _We_ have."

She closed her eyes and nodded. It felt good to have his support. She felt weak.

"The only lead we have. We need to track her down. We need to help her, too, even if she is not the one who abducted Tikki."

Chat Noir nodded.

"She doesn't act like the others at all. She was not attacking anyone. Maybe she was planning to, but… Oh. Ladybug. I have _bad_ news."

She tensed.

"What happened?"

Her partner looked away, uneasy.

"Feathertail's Akuma escaped", he admitted.

" _What?_ But you told m… Marinette you had taken care of it! That zoo employee returned to normal!"

"I severed the Akuma's link with Hawk Moth but the thing is I _can_ _'t_ free them like you do. Plagg showed me how to do it, but I had never tried before, and there is like twenty spells to do in a row. It's not just like using Cataclysm. I did my best but it wouldn't work, so I trapped the Akuma in a box and figured I'd ask for your help. But I chased after that woman earlier, and I totally forgot about the first Akuma, and when I came back, it was gone. I'm so sorry, I know I-"

She put a finger on his lips.

"Hush", she told him, frowning. "It's not your fault. You did your best. That's why we are a team, right? If you were meant to purify Akumas, it's the first thing 'Plagg' would have taught you. It's already amazing that you could free the zoo keeper."

He bit his lower lip, eyes going wide. Marinette removed her finger, as casually as possible.

"Now", she said, putting her hands on her hips and smiling with a confidence she didn't quite feel, "we find Tikki, and we fix this!"

Chat Noir stared at her for a second more, stunned, breaking into a nervous smile he disguised as a grin. He curtsied.

"At your service, my lady. Where do we start?"

She looked at him, hesitating. He stood up straight and tilted his head to the side. She took a deep breath.

"I'm not going to be able to help _much_ ", she said. "I can't fight. I had to take the _bus_ to come here."

He nodded.

"I can fight for both of us. I can carry you, if you let me."

She stared at him in disapproval out of pure habit, and nearly retorted "I'm sure you'd like that". He blushed and laughed and scratched the back of his head, avoiding her eyes.

He would have liked that.

"And", she continued, dismissing her mild annoyance, "I need to talk to Plagg."

Chat Noir blinked.

"What?"

"I need to talk to Plagg. We are going to need a way to communicate. And…"

He suddenly understood what was coming. She saw it on his face. Instead of smiling - after all that time spent teasing her about her secret identity and trying to get clues out of her - he went pale. He swallowed.

Marinette took yet another deep breath.

"And I trust you. I trust you with my life. I know that you might ask a lot of questions about who I actually am, and joke about it twice as much, but that you will always respect my secret. I knew that even before you proved it. And… If what I feel was all that mattered, I would tell you who I am right now. But…"

Chat raised a hand, then lowered it.

"But?"

"It's so… From the very start, I knew it was too dangerous to tell you, to tell _anyone_. But I don't know _why_! I have just… Always known, and Tikki always acted as if it was how things were. So… Maybe it is how things have always been. Maybe there _is_ a good reason and we don't remember, but our Kwamis do. So I have to talk to Plagg."

Her partner stared at her in silence for an eternity.

She took his hand.

"I'm not asking you to tell me who you are if you don't want to."

"I would in a heartbeat", he whispered.

Her hand froze around his.

For a moment or so, neither of them moved, then Chat Noir freed himself to wave towards the end of the street, grinning.

"Alright", he said. "Let me just go transform back, and I'll send him to you."

###

"You can FLY!" Alya exclaimed, looking up at a floating Sunny Weather. "You can _actually_ , _totally_ FLY!"

Nino observed them from a few feet away, along with Alix.

Aurore had quickly transformed back, after her demonstration in the teahouse, and had brought them to her house, where they would not be disturbed. She had a big gymnasium. More importantly, it had a high ceiling. She had changed form again, and was spinning well above their heads.

As for Alya, she was bouncing up and down. Aurore had refused to be filmed, but that did not stop their blogger friend for asking a million questions.

"Can you do that for long?"

"An hour or so, then I transform back. But that's if I _only_ fly. If I play with the wind, I tire much faster."

"Are you as strong as Stormy Weather? Can you do the same kind of wind blasts, or are they weaker?"

"One or two very strong blasts in a row, that's it. The softer they are, the more I can cause, but I never even managed ten."

"What about lightning?"

"No lightning. No storms either."

Nino turned to Alix, who was listening to it all, jaw clenched. She was tense, and kept adjusting her gloves. He could see the sheen of sweat around her wrists, yet she would not take the gloves off.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I made my cat disappear."

Nino blanched.

"He came back!" his classmate snapped. "It took an hour or so, but it came back. But, still… I rubbed his head, and he froze, and then he vanished. And I couldn't do anything."

She adjusted her gloves again. He put a hand on her shoulder.

"But he came back."

"A fat lot of good it did me! I spent the whole hour panicking and I even told Jalil what had happened and I couldn't bring him back."

"Alya's blog says Time Breaker was storing energy to travel back in time."

"I _know!_ "

"I just mean… I wonder… Couldn't you feel that energy at all?"

"IF I HAD I WOULD HAVE LET IT OUT, WOULDN'T I?"

Sunny Weather and Alya whirled to them, surprised. Alix glared at them. Nino waved and smiled, pretending everything was okay. Aurore raised her eyebrows, but shrugged. Alya frowned, and kept looking at Nino. She gestured at him so he would explain, but it just shook his head. His friend took a second to file her questions away for later, then turned to Aurore again.

"Have you been wearing those gloves all that time?", he whispered to Alix.

She nodded.

"It's energy, right?" she murmured back. "So, I figured rubber gloves would stop that, and biker gloves could hide the rubber gloves, you know."

Nino acquiesce, chilled to the core. She had been terrified of touching anyone and seeing them vanish, and he could understand that.

"I think Alya forgets how dangerous we were when we changed", he said. "She is so hyper about it all, but her power was not _that_ bad. Ours were scary, weren't they?"

Alix shrugged.

"I'd stay Stormy Weather was pretty strong too. Pigeon man was funny. _My brother turned into an Egyptian god!_ "

"He _did_ kind of set the standard for everyone else."

"Yup."

"The mummies were very impressive."

"Yup. Still doesn't beat time travel. And making people vanish."

Nino thought long and hard about his answer.

"But the cat came back. Which means his energy was somewhere within you, not lost. And it escaped, and the cat too. As long as you don't time travel, you should be able to let it out."

"And what if I time travel by _accident?_ " Alix hissed. "What do I do then?"

"Uh…" - He cleared his throat. - "From where I stand, you have two choices. Either you want the powers out and go to Ladybug like _yesterday_ , which I suppose you could do but today is fine… Or you learn how to use them. Like Sunny is doing. If you pick the second thing… I'd still talk to Ladybug."

"You think I could learn? _Really_?"

Nino rubbed the back of his neck.

"Ladybug had to learn. Chat Noir had to learn, and he can turn buildings to dust. They could probably help you out."

Alix mulled over that, then a tentative smile spread on her lips. It turned smug.

"I'd make a kickass super hero, you know?"

"No, you wouldn't. Kickass is trademarked."

###

"Plot device!" the rabbit-boy shouted, for the third time that day.

It was his main and only attack, as far as Tikki knew: an illusion he could manipulate from a distance. He turned a flat surface into a screen of sorts, and could observe what happened in a totally different place, where he enacted… Scenarios. He wrote them down in the notebook his Akuma was in, used his magic skill, and it became true. In a fashion.

His scenario of the day was "Tikki flies up to Rose to ask for help", or "Tikki flies up to Juleska to ask for help", and now "Tikki flies up to Pascale Martin to ask for help". He did not need his illusion to recite more than a few lines. He did not need it to be able to sustain a conversation, know Ladybug, or even last more than a few seconds. The girls' initial reaction told him everything he had to know.

The real Kwami, who was watching it all from her cage, was terrified.

Soon, the scenario the young human would write down in that notebook of his would be "Tikki flies up to Marinette to ask for help", and Marinette would open her arms and call Tikki's name without even suspecting the trick.

Pascale Martin, however, just squeaked and jumped back.

The rabbit-boy lifted the illusion. The wall turned to concrete again.

"I thought you were sure, this time, Bunny", Plot Hole commented. "Not unlike for the previous girl, and the one before that."

The teenager stomped, glaring at his teammate.

"It was a good backstory! You read it! Even you said it was a good backstory!"

Plot Hole rolled her eyes.

"It was. For your age. And appalling level of education that is no fault of your own."

"Well, I didn't hear you point the problems out, did I, Miss Victorian-Aliens-Romance?"

"I'm so obviously above your level of skill it would have been petty from me."

The boy stomped again, fuming. Plot Hole smirked.

At least, they did not get along, Tikki thought. That was a good thing. They would be much easier to fight if they were not able to not cooperate. Illusionists were dangerous. Chat Noir and Marinette would need all the help they could get.

A glowing butterfly outline appeared on both Plot Hole's and Bunny's faces.

"When?" the woman asked a few seconds later. "Now?"

There was a silence, then the rabbit-boy ran to the desk and started sorting his notes, frantic. Plot Hole smoothed her hair and turned to the door, waiting. That was when Tikki understood what was happening.

Hawk Moth was joining them.

###


	7. Chapter 7

Marinette braced herself for Plagg's arrival, a million questions running through her mind, all of them about secrets to be revealed, and harsh truths to be heard. She was nervous. She was scared. She was going to get through it all the same. Chat Noir and her could handle anything.

Then - and she should really have expected _that_ , what was unclear about "Kwami"? - Plagg turned out to be a tiny floating black cat spirit.

He was adorable.

He didn't look very concerned about the situation, however.

"You wanted to see me?" he asked.

Then he sniffed around, gasped, and flew away.

"Wait here!" he exclaimed, diving from the roof and vanishing into the Italian restaurant on the first floor.

Marinette leaned over the edge and stared down, stunned. That… Explained a great deal about her partner.

Plagg returned after a few moments, carrying an aluminium cheese server filled with parmesan. He put it down on the roof tiles and started stuffing powdered cheese in his mouth.

"So, Marinette", he said. "What did you want to talk about?"

She gaped.

She gaped some more.

The Kwami kept eating his cheese, showing no concern for her state of shock.

"You know who I am?" the teenager exclaimed.

He wriggled his ears.

"Of course I know who you are. I'm a cat. I can hear a mouse's footsteps during a thunderstorm. And you _keep_ talking to Tikki, all day long."

" _You know Tikki too?_ "

"There's not so many of us Kwamis. Of course I know Tikki."

The girl crouched.

"She never mentioned that!"

Plagg burped.

"What was it you wanted to know?" he asked again.

Marinette took a deep breath.

"I want to know why it is so important for us to keep our identities a secret", she said. "I want to know who decided that, and why."

The Kwami looked up, green eyes studying her until she felt so uneasy she gulped.

"Because sometimes, luck isn't enough", he told her, climbing into the cheese bowl. "Didn't you guess that?"

She had. She shivered, chilled.

"Who was hurt?" she asked, not quite managing to utter the actual word she had in mind. "Another Chat Noir? Another Ladybug?"

"This is the part where I explain everything, and it changes your mind about letting Chat Noir know who you are, and _he_ bugs me for hours to know what I said, isn't it?"

"I don't know yet if you will change my mind."

Plagg huffed and floated up, shaking the parmesan powder off. He licked his paws.

"I'll go get him", he announced, flying away. "Wait here."

Marinette jumped to her feet (it amounted to nearly jumping off the roof, and it was a wonder she managed to survive the impulse). After recovering her balance, she gestured at Plagg to come back, but he was several buildings away already, and ignored her. She sighed, and waited.

A few minutes later, she heard stumbling in the alley underneath, and peeked down to the staircase. A boy was climbing it, bumping into the railing and the walls, because he wore a paper bag on his head. Now, Marinette did not have the best angle of vision but, from what she could see, _he_ couldn't see. There were no holes in that bag. Plagg was dragging him by the collar, and guiding him.

She was willing to bet he was leading Chat Noir into walls on purpose.

"Ow!" her partner moaned, clawing at his face to try to tear the paper bag. "Aouch. Agh! Plagg, just… OUCH. Could you just WAIT?"

She climbed down and joined them.

"We can stop here", she said, putting a hand on Chat Noir's shoulder.

He sighed in relief and dabbed at the paper bag again. It finally tore, just a bit. He enlarged the holes, then turned to Marinette and looked at her with confused, paper circled green eyes.

Why did he feel so familiar?

"So have you talked to Plagg?" he asked.

"He's… Not… Very straightforward?" Marinette replied.

" _I know, right?_ I swear talking to him is like pulling teeth, sometimes. The trick is to give him cheese. The smellier, the better."

"There's a cheese server on the roof."

They both paused, and looked around. The Kwami had vanished.

At least, they had an idea of where he was. They both climbed to the roof and found him inhaling parmesan. They both crouched.

"Can we get the explanations, now?" she said.

Plagg licked the bowl clean, then floated up, growing serious.

"It's simple enough", he told them. "It's better if nobody knows who you are, not even the two of you. The last time a hero was possessed by an Akuma, he knew who the others were, all of them. And he went after them."

###

Tikki shivered when Hawk Moth walked in. They had not crossed paths in more than a decade, and not since he had moved to this new human host. Not since before he had won. She had not often been terrified - it was not in her nature to begin with, and she had lived a long time - but feeling what had become of Makko's magic was horrifying. It was corrupted to the core, and so dark Tikki was not sure she could have cleaned all that evil away, if given the opportunity.

At first, Hawk Moth ignored her. He talked to the rabbit-boy - Plot Bunny - and to Plot Hole, about theirs plans to track down Ladybug and to capture her.

He was not satisfied with their performance, but he was not unhappy either, which was the most you could hope from him. His was an anger that devoured. He had no patience. If they had caught Ladybug, he would have blamed them for not capturing Chat Noir too. If they had captured Chat Noir, he would have asked for Clover, and so on as long as there would be a miraculous out of his hands.

"You can't use that trick again", he said of the double of Tikki they had sent out. "It might still work tomorrow, but the girls who saw that illusion will talk about it, and Ladybug will be ready. Find a new idea."

"Yes, sir!" Plot Bunny exclaimed, grabbing a pen and several sheets of paper.

He sat on the floor and started scribbling, chewing on his pencil when he stopped writing.

Hawk Moth turned to Plot Hole.

"Are you ready to fight her?"

"I'll be ready to fight them both if necessary, master. But they needn't see me at all."

He studied her face, and betrayed nothing of his thoughts.

"His Kwami will be able to sense you", he said after a long silence. "Be prepared for that."

Plot Hole bowed.

"I will."

Hawk Moth turned his attention to Tikki, who recoiled in her cage. All she managed to look at was his miraculous. The butterfly was pinned to his collar, just like he had always worn it, and Aricia before him.

"Leave us", he told the two Akumas.

The boy ran out, and the woman dove through her own ink. Tikki found herself alone with Hawk Moth.

He looked at her but didn't speak. She met his eyes.

"You have to let go of the anger", she said, as softly as she could. "She would never have wanted you to do this to yourself."

He clenched his teeth and took a step forward, leaning closer to her cage.

"So you little monsters _did_ know who we were", he commented, in a tone too composed to be true.

"No", Tikki replied. "But I know who you were _to her_."

He laughed, half-mocking and half-bitter.

"As if creatures such as you could understand. As if it had the slightest meaning to you."

"It DOES! We CAN!"

"Which is why you are sending children to fight wars without ever knowing the stakes?" - He laughed. - "On that note: by all means continue doing so. It shows your true colors."

You _could_ plead with people possessed by Akumas. Not always, not often, but you could. It all depended on the emotions that pushed them, and the source of them. Their true personalities played a large part in how reachable they were, too. But… Hawk Moth was no small Akuma, he was the essence of them. He wouldn't have left much of the person he possessed. Still, even if there was only a chance in a million that pleading would work, it was worth a try.

"Argus, you have to fight him!" Tikki called. "This is not you. It was never you."

The villain laughed.

"You are even more naive than the child you recruited, if you believe this is not me. After what happened to Aricia, what else could be left?"

Tikki closed her eyes to gather her courage and her hopes, then looked at the miraculous.

" _Makko_ ", she cried. "Makko, _please_ fight your way out. _Please_ don't let him erase you. Please, if you can hear me, just-"

"Makko doesn't care", Hawk Moth cut in. "Makko does not _want_ to listen to you. Makko has seen the light."

###

You didn't win every time. Ladybug knew that. Chat Noir knew that. But they had always won. They had never faced loss. They had never been _really_ defeated. They knew it could happen and they would face it if needed. They could not give up, ever, and they did not want to.

Still. They were not the first, and they would not be the last, and maybe they would fail, like Aricia and Argus, who had shared a miraculous, and who had fallen. Aricia who was gone, and Argus who had been angry enough to fall prey to an Akuma, along with his Kwami. Argus, who had given them proof that it was, after all, important to conceal their identities.

Plagg knew who Marinette was, but he had not told Chat Noir, and did not seem to plan to. He was not opposed to her telling the truth, of course. He had yawned at the idea.

"Of course, you can, as long as you are sure you can protect your families."

He had left them to raid the restaurant again, hungry for more cheese, of a smellier variety.

Marinette and the boy who was Chat Noir and had green eyes had sat down on the edge of the roof, looking at the sunset, shoulder against shoulder.

"So, can I call your stick with a normal phone?" she asked when the sun disappeared.

Her partner turned his paper-wrapped face to her.

"I have no idea. Somehow, I don't think Plagg gets cell reception."

"That makes sense. I don't think they had mobile phones in ancient Egypt."

"I can give you my _real_ phone number."

"Wow. Do you know how many hoops I had to run through to get a boy's phone number before?"

"No?"

"It involved bribing, stalking, a tactical diversion, and a team of two."

Chat Noir stared at her.

"Now I'm jealous you didn't go through all of that effort to get _my_ number. Also, a bit scared."

"Scared?"

"You just accused yourself of stalking."

"Oh. Ahem. Yes."

"What about we make ourselves new emails? That would work for a time."

"That sounds good."

He tilted his head towards her (there was a lot of crumpling). She blushed and tilted her head away.

"When we defeat Hawk Moth", he said, with quiet assurance - not "if", but "when" - "the first thing I'll do is to give you my number. You won't even have to ask. No stalking required."

"That's nice", she said, trying to boop his nose to push him away and hitting him straight in the nostril. "SORRY!"

"Ow, ow, ow."

"Sorry!"

"I'm okay!"

"I'm still sorry!"

"You know what? As Ladybug, you wouldn't have apologized."

"Of course I would have!"

"Three times?"

"Maybe not three times."

He chuckled.

"You're a bit different as yourself. I should have known."

"Are you? Well, you are _quieter_ _…_ "

"I am. Chat Noir is more _me_ , though. If feels like the person I should always have been."

Marinette stared at him. Even the paper bag could not make the moment less serious. He stared back.

"Cat got your tongue?" he teased.

She sighed, pushed him away and slid down to the fire stairs.

"We should decide on emails and go home to plan our next move", she said. "Get Plagg to check every place you have been to with that Akuma! I'll get in touch with that girl with the blog. If someone spotted the invisible woman, she would be the first to know!"

###


	8. Chapter 8

"Nino! Alya! Do you want orange juice?" Little Girl A asked, peeking into Alya's room.

"No, thank you!" her sister replied.

"Okaaaayy."

Nino watched the kindergartener run off. He counted to thirty. So did his friend.

Little Girl B barged into the room.

"Do you want cookies?"

"Err… No, thank you."

"Aaaaw. Okay."

And she left.

Nino and Alya had been offered popcorn, candy, soda (the coke kind), soda (the orange kind), soda (the citrus kind), soda (the pink-he-had-no-idea-of-the-taste kind), as well as tea, chocolate, carrots, wrapped cheese slices, paprika potato chips, salt potato chips, and popcorn again. Nino had lost count of how many little sisters Alya had, but they gave the impression you needed an entire alphabet to differentiate them all.

"Couldn't we just lock the door?" he asked.

"We really, really can't", Alya replied.

He blinked.

"Are you parents not okay with you being alone with a boy or something?"

"What? No! But if the girls can see what is happening, they can't INVENT it."

"Okay? But I don't see how we can talk about _you know what_ if they keep listening in."

"They are going to get bored. Or to run out of food to bring us. Just wait ten more minutes", his classmate said, reading through the comments section of her blog. "Oh, _that_ _'_ _s_ strange."

He joined her at her desk.

"What's strange?"

"There's a comment from Rose. She saw a sort of fairy looking like a ladybug inside the school. She asks if someone else did too."

"And?"

"Someone replied and says she did. It's a little sprite, and it came to her, called her by her name, and asked for help. Then it vanished."

Nino leaned in, looking at the screen. There were a few more comments, most of them guesses at what the 'fairy' actually was.

Alya turned to him.

"Do you know what a Kwami is?" she asked.

"No?"

"Well, I think now we do. I told you Ladybug couldn't transform. I didn't understand what Marinette explained to Chat Noir - she didn't either - but… Something or someone unheard of before vanishes from Ladybug's life, and something unheard of _and_ ladybug-like appears? How would you call that?"

"A trap?" Nino replied.

His friend stared at him.

She thought about it.

"I was going to say 'a lead', but you are probably right."

She crossed her arms, frowned, and started thinking.

"We need to warn Ladybug", she said. "If that sprite is her 'Kwami' and the key to her transformation… No, if it is her _friend_ … Someone might be trying to trick her into revealing herself. There were hints before that Ladubug might be a girl from our year. That history book she dropped."

"And about everyone in our class was akumaized by now", Nino added. "What's so special about our college?"

"Exactly! And isn't it super convenient that Ladybug or Chat Noir always seems to be just around the corner when that happens?"

Nino nodded, and considered the situation.

"So… We got an invisible villain in our school. What was she doing here?"

"Looking for a girl around our age who was looking for a ladybug-like red fairy, I bet."

"But Chat Noir stopped her", Nino added. "And if that's an illusionist they are dealing with…"

"All it would take to find Ladybug would be to send an illusion of her _missing friend_ to her…"

"And Ladybug's reaction would give her away."

Alya turned to her screen.

"I need to write about this", she declared, hitting the "new post" button. "We have to warn her!"

She immediately started typing, words flooding out of her with as little difficulty as correct spelling. "Suspicious activities at the Françoise Dupont college. Is it a trap?", she wrote. She then explained what Rose had posted in the comments, and exposed her and Nino's theory, with a lot less "Ladybug is definitely a fellow student" and a lot more arguments in favor of the "trap" hypothesis. She ended the article with a big, bold, italicized and red "Be careful, Ladybug!".

"That should do it", she said. "I hope she'll see it."

"Does she read the blog?"

"I don't know for certain, but I know Chat Noir does", Alya replied.

She stood and grabbed her coat.

"Now, time for some good old fashioned journalism!"

"Wait, _what?_ "

"You didn't think I'd stay here when there is that fairy to investigate, did you?"

"That was _exactly_ what I was thinking!"

###

Marinette arrived home, hugged her parents, and ran to her bedroom. The first thing she did was to call Alya, but her best friend did not answer, so Marinette turned her computer on and checked her blog. You never knew. She might have posted something interesting during the afternoon. Sightings of the Akuma of the day would have been nice.

Marinette read the title of the first post and started freaking out.

She called Alya again. This time, her friend picked up.

"Hi, Marinette! You wouldn't believe wh-"

"What is that story about that fairy at the school and that trap for Ladybug?"

" _You read my post!_ " Alya exclaimed, overjoyed.

"I did! It's… Suspicious. I hope Ladybug and Chat Noir see the article soon. They will know what to do", Marinette said. "So… Do you have anything else on that story?"

"Not yet! But we are investigating it now."

Marinette blinked. She looked at her screen, she looked at her alarm clock, she looked at her screen again, and came up with the conclusion that Alya was indeed talking of investigating a possible Kwami illusion potentially thrown by an Akuma inside their school at half past nine in the evening.

"We? Who? WHAT?"

"I'm with Nino. We are checking the school's library right now, since it's where Rose saw that fairy."

"ALYA! It could be dangerous!" Marinette exclaimed.

She heard Nino's answer from afar.

"I told her so!"

"You still let her go!" she shouted at him.

"We will be _fine_ ", Alya cut in. "If that villain is looking for Ladybug, it won't be at night when the school is empty. And if it's not a trap, then we will be helping that little Kwami ladybug."

Marinette groaned. She could send an email to Chat Noir - they had set them up from a public library before parting ways - but she had no idea how often he would check it. "All the time when I'm not transformed" was a good start, but he did not carry his cell phone on patrol. He had not so far, anyway.

"I'll be joining you", she told Alya. "Wait for me."

"Alright. We plan to check the entire school, we could do with one more person! Are you home right now?"

Marinette removed her earrings. The miraculous was useless without Tikki and she could not allow herself to carry them straight into a trap. Now that she thought about it, she should have given them to Chat Noir and Plagg earlier. They would have been able to keep them safe until Tikki's return.

"Yes. Let me catch a bus and I'll be right there."

Alya squealed, and Marinette's blood turned to ice. Then - a split second later - the other girl headbutted her in the face. They both fell to the floor.

"Ooooow", Alya moaned, massaging her forehead.

Marinette did the same with her nose, staring at her friend. From what she gathered, the blogger had cannonballed out of her phone, which was not an event one was prepared for. At all.

It took several seconds for Marinette to realize it was one of Lady Wifi's powers (taking a projectile best friend to the nose would have confused even the sharpest mind around). But it was impossible. The Akuma responsible for those powers had been cleansed and freed. The phone he had corrupted had been broken and thrown away.

The young superhero gaped.

"What just happened? What just _happened_? _What_ just happened? WHAT JUST HAPPENED?"

It was bad. It was very, very bad. Was Alya possessed again? Why didn't she have a costume? Why did she look so normal? How could she be helped, without Ladybug to handle the Akuma? Would Chat Noir's alternative - and so far half-unsuccessful - method be enough?

Alya groaned.

"I don't know. I was just picturing you and then my phone swallowed me."

"HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? HOW COULD THAT HAPPEN?"

Marinette was interrupted mid-freakout by Nino's voice. It came from her cellphone, on the floor.

"Hello? Can you hear me?" he was calling. "Is everything alright?"

"We are okay!" the two girls shouted back.

Alya reached for the phone, and Marinette tackled her.

"You're _not_ touching that phone. You are not touching _any_ phone until Chat Noir knows about this."

"Alright, alright!"

She really looked okay. No butterfly mark around the eyes. No evil smirk. No sudden need to reveal the truth about Ladybug (not more than usual, anyway). No malice. That was a good sign, wasn't it?

Maybe she was possessed by the Akuma that had escaped Chat Noir. It had been freed from Hawk Moth's influence, but it was not pure either. How did an Akuma behave when it was only partly evil? If it corrupted someone, how much of their thoughts remained? Could they be perfectly normal, but with superpowers? All of those questions had no answers so far, even if Marinette badly wanted some.

She grabbed her phone.

"Everything is okay, Nino", she said. "Alya… Appeared here, but she's not hurt, she looks fine, and I'm taking away her phone privileges."

"Good. Are you at your place?" he replied. "I'll join you."

"Yes. Yes, we are. _Please_ don't stay alone in that school. I don't think it's safe."

###

Adrien returned home with a million things on his mind, and about that many breadcrumbs in his hair. If Plagg found a paper bag for you to use as a mask, you could count on him to locate the most dirty sandwich bag around. He had located it thanks to the heavy cheese smell, too.

He walked in, scratching his hair, and nearly bumped into his father, who was waiting in the hallway.

"Where were you?" he asked before Adrien could greet him. "You missed your photo shoot. I had to have it rescheduled."

The teenager blanched. He had totally forgotten about that! He had been so worried about Ladybug that everything else had flown out of his mind. He looked at Gabriel's shoes, unable to meet his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Father! I was at the library, I don't know how I could have missed the date. I swear I didn't remember about the photo shoot. It won't happen again."

"The library, really? Are you sure you were not out with that good for nothing classmate of yours?"

Adrien tensed.

"I am sure, Father."

"How strange. Because I wonder which library you are talking about, since I distinctly recall sending Nathalie to your school's when we tried to find you. You weren't there."

The boy forced himself to look up. He swallowed.

"I… I… I was not seeing Nino. Another friend needed my help."

"Your _help_ ", his father spat. "You disappoint me. I wish you would not compromise your grades and career for the sake of a few hoodlums who can only drag you down."

"They are my friends!" Adrien exclaimed. "You don't even know them. They are _not_ hoodlums."

Gabriel clicked his tongue.

"Friends. _Friends_. Chloé is a friend. She's a simple girl and you will always know where you stand with her. The others are leeches, and I wish you could see that. You are only setting yourself up for disappointment and loss."

"That's not true", Adrien murmured.

"What did you say?"

"N-nothing, Father."

It was always the same thing. The teenager really wanted to make his father proud - he did - but it clashed with who he was, and he could not be picture perfect all the time. He just could not. He wanted to defend his friends. He wanted to shout. He wanted to argue. But, more than that, he wanted Gabriel to like him, so he kept it all to himself. How could one fight supervillains and be that cowardly?

He felt himself being scrutinized, but he had looked down somewhere during the conversation.

"You know what saddens me the most about today's events?" Gabriel asked. "That you could look at me in eye and lie to my face."

That stung. That _stung_. Then, something in Adrien cracked, and anger flooded in.

"Lie to your face? _Lie to your face?_ Really? _You_ criticize _me_ for lying to your face? When were you going to mention you snatched one of my friends' gifts and passed it as your own, Father?" he ranted, getting Marinette's scarf out of his bag and throwing it at Gabriel. "Were you just thinking I'd never notice?"

For a second or so, he saw confusion in his father's eyes, but it quickly vanished. Gabriel steeled himself.

"There seems to have been some kind of mistake here. An exchange, most likely. I'll have Nathalie look into it."

"So you _did_ get me a gift? What was it?"

That question got no answer, but the silence was answer enough. Adrien shook his head, feeling empty.

"You don't even know, do you? You just told Nathalie to get something for me. If she didn't suggest it herself. That wouldn't even surprise me."

"The whole argument is pointless, Adrien. You are behaving like a spoiled child. But you are no longer a little boy. It's time for you to cure yourself of the notion that you are somehow entitled to gifts and affection."

Adrien looked up, too angry and too hurt to be ashamed.

"Well, maybe it's time for you to cure yourself of the notion that I am some kind of puppet who should only move if you pull its strings, then", he snapped, walking past Gabriel.

The man called after him.

He did not turn back.

###


	9. Chapter 9

Nino made his way to the chemistry classroom, and the open window through which Alya and him had sneaked into the school.

His footsteps echoed in the dark, empty corridors barely lit by his phone's flashlight. He heard strange, unidentified sounds from all around: the ticking of a clock (alright, that noise was identified), a humming noise, a thumping sound. The shadows seemed to twist and shift. The teenager was filled with a sense of foreboding, and checked every corner for… He was not sure. Ghosts? Zombies? Maniacs with knives?

In other words, his brain thought he was in a horror movie.

He was usually laid-back, but he had to admit walking through a school alone at night was different from walking through that same school at night with a friend. And of course, _of course,_ Alya had dragged him to the opposite side of the building before vanishing into her phone.

That had been scary too.

Truth being said, Nino was certain he would have felt a lot more confident walking alone if he had not had a mini-panic attack ten minutes earlier. Seeing your friends be swallowed by electronic devices was not good for your mental health.

He was nearing a corner when he saw light on the floor. It was a circle, moving towards the corner from his right, and that light soon overlapped with the light from Nino's phone.

Whoever was behind that corner screamed.

Nino screamed.

The mysterious stranger screamed again. And ran away.

At that point, being a laid-back guy came in handy. Nino gave chase.

"Hey! Wait, wait, wait!" he called after the other intruder. "It's okay, I'm a student! I forgot my book, that's all!"

The fleeing boy - well, it looked like a boy - froze and turned. Nino pointed his phone's flash at himself and waved, then pointed the light towards the other teenager. He quickly realized he should have done that first. It was a boy, yes. In a rabbit costume. With long ears, and a brown mask. And, under that brown mask, a butterfly shaped mark and glowing brown eyes.

Nino screamed and ran.

He called Marinette. He didn't bother waiting for her to answer. He just kept repeating the same words over and over again.

"There's an Akuma, there's an Akuma, there's an Akuma!"

###

Adrien slammed his door and collapsed on his bed, still shaking.

He could not take it anymore. He had been doing his best, for so long. How could his father not see that? Why couldn't he just be the one doing the efforts, every now and then? Why did Adrien have to erase himself to conform to Gabriel's expectations? Weren't parents supposed to be _a little_ supportive? You just had to take a look at Chloé's father - alright, maybe not Chloé's father, he was just as bad, in the opposite way - or Nino's parents, or Alix's father, or any of the parents who had bothered to show up for parents' day, really.

Sometimes he wondered how things would have been with his mother around. Sometimes. More often than he cared to admit.

His anger fell, and sadness filled the gap, leaving Adrien tired and discouraged.

Plagg emerged from his bag.

"So when do you think it'll be safe to get out and find me some cheese?" he asked.

The teenager just stared at him. The Kwami tilted his head to the side.

"Or I can sneak out and find it myself", he said.

"Why don't you just do that?" Adrien replied, sighing.

He rolled out of bed and went to his computer, figuring checking for new emails from Ladybug was his priority. Plagg floated to the door and hovered there.

"You know", he said, "some people are terrible at caring about people, but it doesn't mean they don't."

Adrien's rage resurfaced. He whirled on his chair, glaring at his Kwami. Then he took a deep breath to compose himself, and waited to be calm to answer.

"Thanks. It's nice of you to try to cheer me up. But you haven't known my father for very long. I don't think he cares at all."

Plagg sniffed, and studied his face. It was not his habit to comfort people. You could see he was considering just flying out the door. He did not, however.

"I've known people exactly like him", he said. "And I have known people who didn't care at all too. Someday, he'll surprise you."

Adrien blinked and felt his eyes go wet. He held that in and nodded.

"Thank you."

He did not believe his father would "surprise him". He had hoped for it for years. He had hoped, and had made mountains of the slightest hints of affection his father had shown him. He had analyzed every word, every gesture, and tried to find a meaning to them that had probably never been there. He was not entitled to affection. He would not receive it from Gabriel, because Gabriel had none to spare.

Plagg shrugged, opened the door, and stopped again.

"Are you going to give up on him?" he asked, sounding about as concerned as he was about any topic that was not related to cheese.

"I need to check if Ladybug contacted me", the teenager replied, turning back to his screen.

His Kwami did not comment, and left.

Adrien opened his email to five new messages.

"Read Alya's blog", the first said. There was no text to go with it, just a title. The second, similarly exempt of text, said "HAVE YOU READ IT YET?". The third _had_ text, and apologized for the screaming. "I didn't know you were busy with that robbery", it said. "Good job".

 _What robbery?_

He googled for "Chat Noir" and robbery, but there was nothing to be found. Yet. He googled again. As news articles didn't write themselves in the span of a second, his search came up empty again.

He opened the fourth email.

"A boy spotted an Akuma at the college", the title said. "More info soon".

Of course, the next email was not of the reassuring kind.

"Three students are trying to investigate. Alya, Nino (the Bubbler), and that Marinette girl you rescued the other day. I am following them. Will intervene if things get out of hand. Can you come?"

He closed his browser, turned his computer off, and ran out of his room.

He slammed into Nathalie.

###

Nino, Alya and Marinette walked into school looking like zombies, about three hours after leaving it.

Someday, their parents would figure out that "I'm having a sleepover at Alya's/Marinette's/Adrien's" meant "I'm trespassing into a public building to investigate the presence of a magical supervillain". So far, they hadn't caught on.

Marinette was exhausted, anxious, concerned, and nervous.

Alya was curious, frustrated, focused and determined.

Nino was Nino.

They had not found the Akuma. They had spent the entire night searching, too. The intruded Nino had bumped in had been long gone. Marinette wondered if the boy _had_ been possessed by an Akuma. Corrupted people were not known to run away from unarmed teenagers. The description fit the bill, however: a costume, and a butterfly shaped mark around the eyes. Still. Running away? That was weird.

She had sent a dozen emails to Chat Noir about it, but his answers were scarce and of the "be careful, I will check that ASAP" variety. He was not _available_.

How _could he_ be not available?

Two Akumas on the run and a fake Tikki were pretty serious problems! Marinette would have made time for it, if she had been the one able to transform. But no, no, no, Chat Noir was busy saving Paris from bank robbers and petty thugs. Alya had gotten that piece of information from the police radio, which she had found a way to listen to on the internet. It wasn't in the news, but it would be on the blog as soon as the bunny mystery was clarified.

It wasn't that Marinette blamed Chat Noir for taking down criminals, though it wasn't his area of expertise. But she felt that maybe the cops could handle the cop things when there were supervillain matters to deal with.

She was so lost in thought that she bumped into the hand Alya was waving in front of her face to catch her attention.

"Mghf."

Alya pulled her hand away.

"I _was_ about to ask if you were still awake. I don't think I need to."

"We are neeeever doing that again", Marinette mumbled.

"I second that", Nino commented.

"Doing what?" Adrien asked, appearing out of nowhere.

Marinette shrieked and jumped a few feet back. Then she turned to stone. And smiled. It certainly looked like a smile. It felt like a smile. Her cheek hurt. She was waving. Why was she waving? Why wasn't anyone saying anything? And Adrien was looking at her like at a crazy person and she was not going to live this down at all and why wasn't Alya helping her and distracting everyone?

Adrien gave her a warm smile and waved back. And _THEN_ Alya finally went into damage control. She wrapped an arm around the blond's shoulders and leaned closer.

"We spent the night in here to investigate the fairy several students saw", she whispered into his ear. "And then Nino bumped into an akumaized boy, and list him, so we investigated that."

"The _what?_ He _what_?" Adrien exclaimed. Then he blinked. "And what does Akumaized mean?"

Marinette inched away and away and away and away until she reached the door, then she fled.

Well, _that_ had been a disaster.

Maybe she could hide in the bathroom for the rest of the day.

Maybe she could hide in the bathroom for the rest of her _life_.

She found a deserted corridor and pressed her forehead against the wall in shame. Couldn't she react normally around Adrien just _once_?

"Marinette!" Tikki called from her back.

The teenager turned, remembering just in time that she could not betray her secret.

The Kwami looked… Just like herself. If it was an illusion, it was a great one. You could not tell the difference.

"Please, you need to help me", Tikki said. "Hawk Moth caught me, and I can't talk for long!"

"What _are_ you?" Marinette said, her stomach twisting. It was the hardest lie of her life. "Are you a fairy?"

"Don't you recognize me? Has he done something to you?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"You need to come with me. Please. I beg you."

"Is there any _other_ way I can help you? Maybe someone I can call? Ladybug? You are a ladybug, aren't you? She must know you!"

The illusion had no answer for that. It flickered. Marinette kept pretending.

"What's happening?" she exclaimed. "Are you okay?"

She was shaking, and trying not to show it.

"Tikki" disappeared.

Marinette _really_ hoped it was an illusion. She couldn't allow herself to show her feelings, however. There was a possibility the illusionist was still watching. She faked panic instead, and ran to Alya. Her friend was still with Nino and Adrien, who were both trying to discourage her from going after that rabbit boy.

"I saw that fairy too", Marinette cut it. "It's just like Rose wrote. It appeared, it talked to me, and it vanished."

###

For all her qualities, Ladybug had no idea of the difference between an email and a text message. She only ever sent titles. If she actually bothered to add a body to her messages, more often than not, she sent them by accident before they were done, and resumed the sentence that had been cut in a second email. Without bothering to write the beginning of the sentence again.

To Adrien, who had been taught penmanship and had been "encouraged" to write actual letters, on actual paper, with actual ink… It was a bit irritating.

That being said, that irritation was nothing next to the worry the messages caused, because none of them were good news. Also, Ladybug seemed to think he had been fighting criminals all night long, when it couldn't have been farther from the truth. The whole superhero thing became very complicated when Nathalie Sancoeur micromanaged your every action, short of watching you sleep. Escaping had not been an option.

In the morning, he had been escorted to the dining room, where his father had been taking his breakfast. Here, Adrien had been informed that his photo shoot was to take place in the afternoon, right after school.

"I hope you have calmed down by now and will not embarrass me again", Gabriel had told him.

Adrien had acquiesced.

He did not know if he was angry, hurt, or dispirited.

What he was for sure was _tired_. He had not been able to run to the school to protect his friends during the night and had been worried sick, even if Ladybug had reassured him with a steady stream of "nothing is happening". He had stayed up until the very last one, when the three of them had finally gone home, a few hours before class.

He had nearly hugged Nino after finding him, and probably would have if he had not scared poor Marinette half to death. The way she had vanished, he was fairly certain she thought they thought she was insane, even if he had tried to show her that _no_ , they did not think that, and everything was okay. Of course, he had not found a second to talk to her after she had come back with that fake Kwami story.

Invisible woman, corrupted boy in a rabbit costume, fake Kwami and an Akuma on the loose: Adrien did not have the slightest idea of how they would solve all of those problems. He had brainstormed with Ladybug by email all day long, and they had come up with exactly zero plans.

And, despite those pressing, life threatening matters, he was still dragged to the parc for that photo shoot. Nathalie collected him at the school's doors, and brought him to his father, who was waiting for them, and did not bother greeting them. He just told the photographer to start working.

So, Adrien smiled. He smiled. He smiled some more. He looked adorable, and sweet, and joyful, instead of bitter and angry and hurt. He pretended not to be furious over his father walking away to discuss the career prospects of Aurore Borell, who happened to be passing by. He pretended not to be annoyed by the photographer antics.

It took two hours for the shoot to _finally_ be over. At that point, Adrien was about to explode.

The photographer went to congratulate Gabriel on how talented his son was, while the teenager himself was left alone by the fountain. He waited for ten minutes, at least, then just stood, getting behind the camera to review the pictures that had been taken earlier. He browsed through them with increasing disgust, not quite managing to recognize himself in that gentle smile, that sweetness, that manufactured perfection.

He deleted one. He deleted two. He deleted three.

A black butterfly landed on the camera.

###


	10. Chapter 10

Marinette had navigated to the park in a state of blankness. Actually, she had been navigated there by Alya, who insisted on her being present for two important events: an ex-villains meeting, and Adrien's photo shoot of the day.

Now, in other circumstances, those events would have been met with Ladybug's vivid interest and Marinette's fawning. Not after "Tikki"'s visit, however. There was no doubt now the Kwami's disappearance was the work of enemies, and that they were using her as bait. They knew Marinette was one of the students of her college. That was why the invisible woman had been wandering around without attacking anyone. That was why another villain was walking through the school at night. They were looking for clues. She had no doubt they had made a list of suspects, and were now going after the most likely candidates with trap like that illusion.

She hoped her lies to "Tikki" had been enough for Hawk Moth to cross her name off the list. Faking ignorance had been the hardest thing she had done in her entire life.

"So!", Alya told her, guiding her across the park. "The idea between the meetings was to discuss the problems that came up after us turning into crazy supervillains. You know, with our families, the press, the 'not feeling too good about sending every adult into the stratosphere' things."

"That… Sounds like a good idea", Marinette replied.

Ladybug always fixed the damage, and the akumaized people forgot what they had done, but the rest of the world didn't, did it?

"Now, of course, it has turned into a 'let's discuss Alya being able to pause things with her phone' thing", the blogger added. "I thought it was important to warn the others it could happen to them."

They arrived near a group of three students sitting in the grass - Alix, Nino, and Aurore Borell - who waved to them.

"You already know everyone except Aurore", Alya said. "Aurore, this is Marinette."

"I'm so pleased to meet you!" the blonde said, with the warmest voice and smile.

"Me too!" Marinette replied.

Nino patted the grass to invite them to sit. As he was mostly looking at Alya, her friend promptly dropped next to Alix, so the only space left in the circle would be next to Nino. The blogger didn't notice the blatant trick, but the boy did, and flushed a little.

Aurore still looked sweet and nice, but had turned away from them. From where they were, you could see Adrien's photo shoot.

"He's so cute!" she blurted out.

Everyone turned to her.

She cleared her throat.

"What? It's true! He's so talented, and so nice!" she added.

Marinette was exhausted, but still shot slow-moving, stingless daggers at her.

"Did I tell you it was my great hope to model with him later this month?" Aurore continued. "My agent is in contact with his father's company."

"That's, uh, very nice", Nino replied.

He was the only one to bother answering. Marinette didn't have anything _nice_ to say, Alya didn't dare to speak, and Alix was stifling a laugh.

"But the big fish here is Gabriel Agreste", the blond added, still sugary-sweet, but a lot more scary all of a sudden. "If I manage to impress him, my future is set. One of his favorite models would have _no_ problem getting into the TV business. I could become the next Claire Chazal!"

Well, that was unexpected. Then again, she _had_ flipped over losing that "weather girl" contest.

"Why is being a _news anchor_ your life goal?" Alya exclaimed. "You don't know the first thing about journalism!"

Aurore blinked.

"Why would I have to?"

"It's a JOURNALISM JOB", Alix, Alya and Nino shouted in unison.

Something tugged on Marinette's vest. The teenager looked down and found Plagg pulling on the fabric. He burrowed under her vest and started poking her with sharp, tiny claws. She squealed.

Everyone turned to her.

"I just remembered I have to call my mom!" she announced. "I'll be right back."

"Can I have my phone back first?" Alya asked.

Marinette frowned and handed the device to Nino.

"I'll take care of it", he reverently promised.

"You know you'll have to give it back at some point, right?" their friend commented.

Nino gave her a pointed you.

"Yes. Right after we fix the 'getting sucked into the screen' problem."

That got Alix and Aurore to gasp. Marinette slipped away. She found a quiet corner and hid behind a tree, then got her own phone and faked a call.

"I'm glad we can talk", she told Plagg.

The Kwami floated up, landing on her shoulder.

"What is that I hear about that girl being swallowed by her phone?"

"Alya has _powers_ ", Marinette explained. "Or rather, they _came back_. I don't know why, I don't know how. I wanted to tell Chat Noir but I couldn't just send an email about _that_ , what if anyone managed to see it? So I tried to get him to the school, but he was too busy stopping robberies."

"That wasn't him", the Kwami replied, shrugging. "He was grounded."

"What?"

"Grounded. He was caught sneaking out."

Marinette winced. Then she looked around.

"Where is he now? Is he somewhere close?"

"He won't be able to come for a while, so I figured I'd come and check on you. Chat Noir got that message about the rabbit Akuma and he is very worried."

"I know he is. And I told him about that illusion of Tikki too." - She paused, and took a deep breath. "What could be wrong with Alya?"

Plagg yawned.

"I always wondered where those butterflies went after you cleaned them", he muttered. "Now, we know."

"That's it? That's all you have to say? How dangerous could it be? How do we help her? What if she gets sucked into the internet or a phone satellite or something like that?"

"Just keep her away from shiny electric thingies."

"That's NOT an option!"

"Gloves?"

"Whenever I'm about to tell Chat Noir he doesn't take the job seriously enough, from now on, I'll think about this conversation and reconsider."

"When you'll be as old as I am, you will understand there is very little to worry ab-"

He froze. His ears turned towards the center of the park, and he jumped from Marinette's shoulder to fly in that direction.

"Akuma", he said.

The teenager followed him.

" _Where?_ "

"In… Oh no, no, _no_ ", the Kwami moaned, staring at a pitch black silhouette near the fountain.

Magic was bubbling around the Akuma's victim, and it cleared away slowly, revealing parts of a white costume.

"Remember that discussion about keeping your identity a secret for your own safety?" he said, his voice weak. "This is why. This is exactly why."

###

"YOU ARE NOT GETTING THAT PHONE BACK", Alix, Aurore and Nino snapped after Alya's fifth very thorough argument of why she was entitled to get the device back.

She was going to have to resort to either blackmail, or lengthy powerpoint presentations.

"Then who is taking dictation for my next blog update?" she asked.

Her friends cringed.

"My webmaster can do it!" Aurore replied, more pragmatic.

"You mean you don't update it yourself?" Alya exclaimed, disappointed.

The blond batted her delicate eyelashes in a practiced display of joyful innocence.

"Why would I need too?"

"It's a-"

There was a blinding white flash. They all jumped, dazzled, and looked around. Even with the spots in their vision and the confusion that went with it, it was plain to everyone that something was very wrong. The park had been crowded, and a good part of that crowd was now frozen. Not frozen "iced", but frozen "paused", in strange positions. A pair of girl was hugging and making duck faces at… Nothing. A father was playing "plane" with his toddler son. He had thrown the little boy in the air, where he was now suspended. A teenage boy was posing like a bodybuilder to show his muscles off. A dozen of others were paralyzed.

So was Alix.

She was now standing - but she had never _moved_ to stand - and giving them a snarky grim, a hand on her hip, her posture confident.

" _Alix?_ " Nino called, getting to his feet to shake her shoulder.

It was like attempting to shake a statue. The girl didn't move an inch. Alya tried too, with just as little results. Both of them were so focused on their classmate that they forgot about the rest of the crowd. They both jumped when Aurore spoke.

"Is that _Adrien_?" she asked.

She was pointing at a boy in a tight white suit, with blond hair and a golden butterfly mark around the eyes. He was holding a camera. It was Adrien, and yet it wasn't. His hair was slicked back like his father. He looked mean. Akumaized people always did.

They gaped. Well, Nino and Aurore did. Alya snatched her phone from the boy's hands.

Villain-Adrien moved to the pair of girls.

"You _really_ shouldn't do this, you know?", he told one of them. "You don't need to."

He poked her forehead, and she immediately started crying, her face unfrozen.

"Who are you? Why are you doing this?" she squeaked. "Let us go!"

Adrien bowed low, grinning.

"You can call me Picture Perfect. And you'll have to free yourself. It's not hard, really. You just need to tell the truth."

The girl stared at him, confused.

"What?"

He took a step back and gestured at the two friends.

"Is that what you want for yourself, forever?" he asked. "Why are you doing this to yourself? You don't need to. Nothing will happen if you stop being what _she_ wants you to be."

"We have to stop this", Alya whispered.

" _How?_ " Aurore snapped back. "He froze half the park!"

"I'm posting this to my blog. Maybe Chat Noir will see it."

Nino took a slow step forward, pushing Alya to the side to take a closer look at his best friend.

"We have to stop this", he murmured. "We can't let him do that."

The girl Adrien was talking to steeled herself. Her anger grew. It was not directed at Adrien, but at her friend: you could see it in the way she was looking to the side and tried to turn her head. And then, in a blink, she was free. She whirled to her friend and stomped.

"I only pretend to like you because I don't want you to humiliate me like you do everyone else!" she shouted. "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!"

And, after that outburst, she ran away. Adrien smiled and patted the paralyzed friend on the shoulder. She stumbled, unfrozen herself, and sank to her knees. He left her there and walked to the posing teenage boy. He touched his forehead.

"I don't want to do sports, I want to be an astronomer!" the boy blurted out. "I don't want to hurt my dad but I don't want to follow in his footsteps."

Adrien smiled again, freed him, and sent him on his way.

Alya knew Ladybug would not be coming, but she hoped Chat Noir would get there soon. She wanted everyone freed. She wanted her _friend_ freed. Akumas always went after the people she knew. She looked down at her phone and swiped the play button that had replaced the normal interface.

A pink disk flew to one of the paralyzed, hit him in the face, and sent him reeling. But he could move. He had not expected to be freed, so he had not been prepared to keep himself upright, hence the near fall.

Aurore stared at her, shaking her head.

"Are you crazy?" she whispered. "Don't do that!"

"Do _something_ ", Alya hissed back.

"Oooh no", Nino moaned.

They turned.

Adrien was joining his father, who was paralyzed, just like the others. He was standing like a statue, his face stiff, arms crossed.

His son gave him a cold smile.

"Hi", he said. "What about we dispel a few rumors about you _not_ being an horrible person?"

Nino started running, jumped on his possessed friend, and rolled on the ground with him.

"Sorry, dude", he said, struggling to keep the blond immobilized. "Trust me, you'd _really_ regret doing what you were about to do."

Adrien sent him flying and grabbed his camera, snapping a picture of the other boy. Nino froze, on his knees in the dirt, while trying to stand up. His akumaized friend bounced to his feet and turned to Mister Agreste again.

"So. Where were we?"

Alya breathed in, shaking with rage.

"We _are_ doing something", she said, faintly aware of a pinkish glow crawling up her arms and legs. "Now."

She looked down. She was in costume, wearing violet gloves and a white body suit, with a glowing pink wifi icon on her chest.

"I said I wanted to be a superstar, not a superhero!" Aurore whined.

"Well, look on the bright side", Lady… Miss Wifi replied, patting the blonde's shoulder. "Super-something is like _halfway there!_ "

And she shoved Aurore forward.

###


	11. Chapter 11

"Adrien is Chat Noir", Marinette said, watching her crush - her friend - force a teenager to turn on her best friend, then move to his next victim. "Adrien is Chat Noir. _Adrien_ is _Chat noir!_ "

"Can you scream it any louder?" Plagg hissed.

The girl snapped her mouth shut.

"What do we _do_?" she asked. "It's the camera, right? I just have to break the camera and Adrien will be free!"

"And you will catch the Akuma how, exactly?"

Marinette, who was already frozen into place, felt her muscles turn to stone. She glared at the Kwami.

"I have to _try_! Even if the Akuma moves to someone else, we'll have Chat Noir to fight it!"

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw "Picture Perfect" free the teenager he was now targeting. Her anger fell, and worry filled the gap.

"Plagg, what do I _do_?"

The Kwami kept staring at Adrien, who was now turning to his father.

"Do you have your Miraculous with you?"

"No. I… I hid it. I figured that invisible woman would target me."

Plagg nodded, not turning to her.

"You have to take his", he said.

She gaped.

"W-what?"

"His Miraculous. He will not want to surrender the Akuma, he will protect it at all costs", Plagg explained.

"You don't know that!"

"Oh, I _know_ that", the Kwami retorted, in a nearly malevolent voice. His tone turned cold. "You going after the ring can surprise him. You might want to play the besotted girl card, too. Don't antagonize h-"

At that point, Nino tackled Adrien, and Marinette jumped forward as they hit the ground. Plagg grabbed her jacket and pulled. He was not strong enough to stop her, but his words did the trick.

"You can't _fight_ him", he said as Picture Perfect froze Nino. "If he is threatened, he will transform. And-"

"And Hawk Moth will ask for the Mir-"

That was the precise second Stormy Weather picked to send Adrien flying with a burst of wing. He rolled on the ground and jumped back to his feet. At the same time, Lady Wifi "unpaused" Gabriel Agreste, who stumbled and fell. Stormy Weather moved between the two of them and Picture Perfect, pointing the umbrella at the boy.

Both of the girls' costumes had changed, in colors if not in shapes. Alya's had turned white and violet, while Aurore's was now her trademark turquoise and shades of aquamarine. The butterfly drawn the blond's face was also different: it no longer had sharp edges, but rounded wings and tails.

Marinette raced to them, and arrived just in time to help Alya to get Adrian's father back to his feet.

"Are you alright, Mister Agreste?" her friend asked.

He gaped at her.

" _Lady Wifi?_ "

The reconverted villain raised her hands.

" _Miss_ Wifi. Tooootally different person", she corrected with an uneasy grin. "And this would be my friend, Sunny Weather!"

Mister Agreste gave her a blank stare, then turned to his son, who was preparing for "Sunny" Weather's next attack. She hit him with another burst of wind, but he stood his ground, then attacked. Aurore flew up and out of reach, pointing her umbrella at him, but she did not shoot thunderbolts at him, nor did she attempt to use a wind blast again.

"This _can_ _'_ _t_ be happening", Gabriel murmured.

"Get yourself to safety!" Miss Wifi told him, pushing him away from the fight. "Hide!"

Marinette hesitated, and Alya tried to get her to run too, shoving her away. She resisted, and Mister Agreste used that opportunity to slip past them.

"Adrien. Stop this", he said. "Now."

He didn't order, he didn't shout. His tone was cold and collected, and the shock had vanished from his face.

Picture Perfect turned.

Miss Wifi tried to pause him. The pink glowing disk hit him and faded, with no effect.

"Why are _you_ fighting me?" Adrien shouted. "Can't you see I'm helping people?"

Gabriel moved between Alya and his son. He didn't speak, looking around instead. His eyes paused on his assistant, who was paralyzed. He turned back to Adrien, who had grown tense. The teenager was still keeping an eye on Sunny Weather, but most of his attention was on his father.

Marinette seriously considered going for the "besotted girl act", just like Plagg had suggested, because she saw no way to grab his ring at all. He would never listen to reason: he was bristling with rage, and seemed ready to snap. Surprising him was the only strategy.

Fighting him was suicidal. If Aurore kept threatening him, he w-

He photographed her, and she stopped moving.

 _This solves that._

Marinette grabbed Miss Wifi before she could free her partner, and stepped on her foot for good measure. Alya grimaced, but Picture Perfect didn't notice. His father was walking to him.

The man's impassiveness was chilling.

Adrien inched away, then took a step forward and grinned.

"Nice of you to surrender", he said, raising his camera.

Gabriel extended his hand.

"Give me that thing."

Picture Perfect laughed.

"I don't think you understand what is going on here, _dad_."

"I do. Give me the camera."

The teenager snarled.

"Why isn't Chat Noir here yet?" Alya whispered. "I posted photos on my blog _hours_ ago."

Picture Perfect pressed the shutter button again.

The world went white.

###

Alya was stunned.

By "stunned", she meant shocked, unlike everyone else around. Adrien had paralyzed _everyone_. Everyone but Gabriel Agreste, of course. Well, she _thought_ that had been her classmate's intent. He sure was not paying a lot attention to her, and she was fairly sure superpowered enemies were high on the list of priorities of the Akumaized. They were never fond of Ladybug and Chat noir.

She played possum.

Adrien could not paralyze her and she could not pause him. She assumed it was because their powers were the same. The magic looked different, and they used different devices, but the end result was the same.

It was a bit problematic, because pausing things was about her only skill, and she could hardly take him in a fight. Marinette had covered how good he was at sports, with diagrams, news clippings, and a fifty-two slides presentation.

She could free someone, but who? Aurore was not going to manage more than one additional attack, and Picture Perfect would be ready to react if she moved. Nino and Alix either had no powers, or would not admit they did. Alya was not sure of how fast Adrien would react to her unfreezing someone, but she figured the only way to prevent him from talking another picture would be to tackle him right after using her power. She could free two people if she was fast, maybe three, but that would be it.

Could Adrien's father defuse the situation? Could an Akuma victim be swayed? Some _had_ shown positive feelings. Some _had_ been targeted in their attacks, or well meaning.

That being said, Gabriel seemed like the last person on earth who could appeal to someone's feelings.

He was still extending his hand and waiting for his son to surrender the camera.

"I'm afraid you're going to end up empty-handed", Adrien said, smirking. "Don't you get the picture?"

Why did villains always go for terrible puns?

"Am I supposed to be impressed?" Mister Agreste replied. "Be it by the tantrum or by the witticisms?"

His son frowned.

"I don't care what you think about my jokes, and this isn't a _tantrum._ "

Gabriel clenched his teeth, in his first display of emotion since he had started talking to Adrien. He didn't answer. Picture Perfect took that as a win, and chuckled.

"Lets start over!"

He raised his camera, closed an eye, and waited for the auto-focus to lock in.

Mister Agreste dropped to the ground and tripped him. Adrien had not expected it. He fell flat on his back, dropping the camera. His father rolled after it and picked it up.

Alya started swiping her phone in every direction, not bothering to aim. Four of her "play" icons hit people in the crowd. The others vanished as she untransformed, exhausted. She fell to her knees.

"You think I don't know exactly what you are doing?" Gabriel growled at Adrien, smashing the camera on the ground. "Using anger as a shield, and an excuse." - He did it again. - "Giving in to emotion. I thought I had raised you better than that."

The camera shattered on the third try. The Akuma flew out of it.

"No!" Picture Perfect shouted.

He jumped to his feet and tried to catch the black butterfly. His father grabbed him by the arm, but was not prepared for the roundhouse kick Adrien threw at his face. Gabriel blocked it, but let go of his son in the process. The teenager cartwheeled away, to the fountain, and a magazine with a picture of himself on the cover.

He dove into the photograph and vanished.

The black butterfly flew higher and higher until you could not see it anymore.

###

Nino and Alix all but carried Alya out of the park. Most of the people there were still paralyzed, including Marinette and Aurore, whom Nino felt very sorry for. But no one _but_ Alya could reverse the magic, and Alya needed rest, or maybe burgers, before being able to use her powers again.

"Will she be okay?" Alix asked.

"Oy! I can answer questions about me!" Alya snapped.

The pink haired girl rolled her eyes.

"She will be okay."

"I'm still hearing third person pronouns."

"Shut up and rest."

Nino sighed and helped Alya to sit on the school's stairs.

"Just… Rest, and when you're strong enough, you can go back there as Lad-"

"Miss", the blogger corrected.

"Miss Wifi, and free everyone. If Chat Noir doesn't drop by and do it himself."

"I need to check the website. He should have shown up by now. Maybe he's in danger somewhere else."

Nino nearly replied that Chat Noir would not have been able to comment on her blog if he _was_ in danger somewhere else, but thought better of it. As much as he wanted to bash sense into her, she had to rest. A great many people needed help. And Sunny Weather needed to be removed from the sky.

He sighed, took his phone out, and checked the website.

"A few comments on your photo, but none by him", he said, after checking the post's page.

Alix cleared her throat.

"So what _exactly_ happened with Adrien?" she asked. "I could see some of it, when I was paralyzed, but then everything went white."

"The camera's flash", Nino replied.

"You _think?_ I mean, what happened while we couldn't see or hear anything? Alya was, uh, awake, wasn't she?"

" _Third person_ ", their friend protested. "And… Not much. It didn't last long at all. He argued with his father, and Mister Agreste managed to snatch the camera."

"And he smashed it, right? Why isn't Adrien normal again?"

"It's not how it works", Alya and Nino replied.

He cleared his throat and let his friend explain.

"The corrupted people don't turn back to normal when the Akuma is chased out of whatever he is in", she said. "Ladybug catches them, and cleans them, and _then_ fixes everything. But now…"

"She isn't here", Alix finished.

"She isn't here. And Chat Noir didn't show. So Adrien kept all of his Akuma powers. He's still evil."

"He doesn't have the camera."

"What if he's like me?" Alya snapped back. "He can get another!"

Nino scrolled down the blog, frowning.

He scrolled down and down, remembering all of Ladybug and Chat Noir's interventions over the previous months. Little hints and clues started to rearrange themselves in his mind. He knew of a girl in their school and in their year who disappeared at strange times. The last time he had seen her, he had been on his knees in the park, unable to move, but perfectly able to _see_. He had watched Marinette run to Alya and Mister Agreste, then refuse to run away to safety. She had tried to stop Alya from fighting.

Maybe Ladybug could not transform, but she still tried to intervene.

And Chat Noir…

"Are you feeling better?" he asked Alya.

"She _just_ sat down!" Alix exclaimed.

"THIRD. PERSON!" their friend yelled.

"I'm serious", Nino said. "Can you try to transform back?"

She tried, and failed. He sighed.

"Alright. Let's wait, then we'll go get Aurore and Marinette. The rest can wait, but I'd rather not have Sunny Weather left trapped there", he pretended. "You never know, it might be dangerous."

Now that he thought about it, it _absolutely_ was.

They all came to that conclusion at the same instant and started running back to the park.

###

###


	12. Chapter 12

Chloé was reading Vogue.

She was lounging in her most comfortable sofa. She had the butler bring her fresh pressed orange juice (three times, to get a satisfying one), as well as a collection of all of the fashion magazines of the week. Sabrina would be bringing her homework back soon enough. It gave Chloé plenty of time to catch up on the latest trends, and order her monthly replacement of her entire wardrobe.

She was adding a Dior handbag to her list when a black butterfly landed on her armrest.

Well, _that_ was never good. _Insects_ inside, ugh!

She waved her magazine at it to chase it out. It wouldn't move.

"Just fly out! Don't make me smash you, I don't want to stain a magazine I haven't finished reading!"

The butterfly didn't react.

Chlo rolled her Vogue up.

That was when Adrien burst out of the life-sized poster of himself she had just had framed and placed on her bedroom wall. Except it was not _normal_ Adrien. He was transformed, like all of those people Ladybug fought.

She squealed.

He stared at her.

"Wow", he said, looking surprised.

She brushed her hair back behind her ears, where it belonged. "Wow" was an adequate reaction to seeing her, if she had to be honest.

"Thank you."

"Wow", he repeated. "You are _exactly_ who you are."

What kind of nonsense what that?

"Of _course_ I'm exactly who I am!" Chloé retorted. "Who else would I be?"

He blinked.

"It's just… Most people are-"

"Well I'm not most people, am I?"

"Layered", he finished. "Never mind."

She huffed.

"Wah, wah, wah, 'layered'. Why do you say that like it's _better_? _I_ say you should be a hundred percent yourself and nothing else. Who has time for little flaws and such?" she commented, waving her hand dismissively. "The only thing in me that is 'layered' is my nail polish."

Evil Adrien gaped.

Chloé crossed her arms.

"And how can you even _tell_ who is layered and who isn't, anyway?"

"The Akuma tells me", Adrien replied, pointing at her sofa's armrest.

She whirled.

"It's still _here_?" she exclaimed, smacking the sofa with her magazine to chase the butterfly away.

"NO, NO, NO, DON'T DO THAT!" Adrien yelled, panicking. "I need it!"

He ran to her and extended his hand. The Akuma landed on it.

Chloé shivered. Bugs. Inside. And not the Ladybug variety, either.

"I was wondering", her villainified friend asked, picking her EePhone 10 up, "can your phone take pictures?"

"Duh! Of _course_ it can take pictures! It's a next-gen two-thousand euros unreleased EePhone max!"

"Cool, thanks!" he replied, ushering the Akuma into it.

The phone turned black.

###

Marinette fell face first on the ground.

It was later. She could tell it was later because the sky had changed color in a blink, going from blue to the pinkish orange of sunset. She had blacked out.

Nino pulled her to her feet.

"Let's move, come on, fast, fast", he said.

A pink glowing play icon flew above her head, and she looked up to see "Sunny Weather" wobble in the air, then fly away as she spotted Alix gesturing at her.

Marinette blinked, still confused and anxious.

"Where is Picture Perfect?" she asked Nino, reluctant to follow him.

What had happened here? Had she been paralyzed too?

"Come on", her friend said, guiding her towards the exit, "before people notice Alya. There are journalists."

"Where is he?" she asked again, hesitating.

"He escaped. I'll explain!"

She followed him, still looking around. Alix was helping Alya get away: the blogger looked beyond exhausted. She was not in costume anymore.

They evaded the press and walked away as fast as Alya could manage it, stopping behind their school. They sat on a stairway.

"I'll have to get back there soon", Marinette's best friend gasped out, panting. "All of those people…"

"Can wait for Chat Noir", Alix interrupted her. "Just. Rest."

Sunny Weather landed behind a tree a few feet from them, transformed back into Aurore, and stomped to them.

"What happened? Where did he go? When did all of those journalists arrive?" she yelled. Then she composed herself and gave them a shy smile. "I think I lost a few minutes."

"You lost half an hour", Nino told her.

Alya sighed and started to explain what had happened after that last flash: everyone being not only frozen, but totally "stopped", Gabriel Agreste arguing with his son and breaking the camera, Adrien diving into a photograph, and the Akuma escaping.

He was gone, and his Miraculous was gone, and it wouldn't be long before Hawk Moth figured out what kind of ring his new victim was wearing. Marinette would have strangled herself. If she had been faster, they would not be in that situation. All Plagg had asked her to do was to get the Miraculous off his hand. That was it. Simple enough, yet she had managed to fail. She needed to find Adrien, and quickly. She also needed to find Plagg, who didn't seem to be around.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, jumping to her feet. "I was calling my mom when it all started! She must be so worried! I need to get back home."

Nino gave her a sharp look.

"I'll walk you there", he said, standing up too.

"It's okay, I can get there on my own, it's not far."

"It's getting late and there are _three_ supervillains on the loose", he retorted, dragging her away. "Alix, I'm counting on you to get Alya back home safe!"

Marinette stumbled after him, while their friends raised their eyebrows and watched them go.

"What's gotten into you?" she snapped after they turned the corner, when the wrist he had grabbed started to really hurt.

He looked down, noticed what he was doing, and let her hand go.

"Sorry!"

Marinette grumbled and massaged her wrist.

"I _can_ walk myself home!"

"I know. But you're not going home, are you?"

She tensed.

"What? Of course I'm going home."

"Okay. Let's make it short. I know you are Ladybug. Is Adrien Chat Noir? Is that why he didn't come to help against "Picture Perfect"?"

She gaped for a second or so, then put both her hands on his mouth.

"A-are you crazy?" she stammered, panicking. "That's nonsense!"

He tilted his head back.

"Maybe it's not the best moment to lie to the people who want to help you?"

"I'M NOT LYING!"

"We can argue about that or I can _help_ you. And I think you need help, _especially_ if Adrien is Chat Noir."

"I. AM. NOT. LADYBUG!" Marinette roared, which made Nino tilt his head back some more.

There was a silence.

"Okay then. I guess I'll just walk you home."

"I. DON'T. NEED. TO. BE. WALKED. HOME!"

"Why? You have nothing to hide, right?"

Marinette could have pulled her hair out in aggravation. She wanted to scream. She wanted to strangle Nino. She couldn't afford to lose time with Adrien possessed _and_ in possession of his Miraculous.

She groaned and stormed off.

Nino followed her.

"I'm not Ladybug", she muttered.

It was annoying how she was walking as fast as she could, and he looked like he was on a leisurely stroll, not even bothering to quicken his pace. He was too tall and entirely made of legs, that was the problem!

"Okay. So where are we going?" he asked.

She groaned again.

"Adrien's house, I suppose", she hissed.

"You think he'll go there?"

"YES, I THINK HE'LL GO THERE! You told me his dad left the park not long ago, right?"

"Yes. He abandoned his assistant, too. She's still out there, frozen."

"Well isn't that nice of him", Marinette grumbled.

"Yeah. The dude is pretty high on my list of horrible people", Nino commented. His voice dropped so low she barely heard his next words. "Bad enough to make you think that getting rid of the adults is a great idea, apparently."

Marinette put a hand on his shoulder. He wouldn't remember thinking that, but people had talked about the Bubbler quite a lot.

"That didn't come from you", she said.

"Nah, I would never have had that idea ever", he replied, sarcastic.

"Nothing to do at all with the _evil spirit_ controlling your mind. All your fault. Woe is you. You are a monster."

"No need to get snappy!"

"You would not be getting snappy comments if you were not following me, in case you didn't realize!"

"Oops, right. "Thick skin" mode activated!"

Marinette didn't bother to answer. She kept walking.

Adrien didn't live that far from the school, so they could already see his house.

"Are you sure he'll go there?" Nino asked.

"No, but it's worth a try. He was going after his dad, wasn't he? The house would be the first place he'd check."

"And if he doesn't check it?"

"Can we please just hope he does?"

They stopped in front of Adrien's home.

Nino took a deep breath.

"Okay, err. I'm not implying that you are Ladybug or anything, but how do you plan to help Adrien?"

Marinette steeled herself.

"I have no plan to help Adrien", she said, looking at the gates not to have to meet her friend's eyes. "All I can do right now is protect everyone else."

She felt Nino stare at her.

"What?" he gasped.

She closed her eyes and clenched her fists.

"Right now", she added.

"There _has_ to be something you can do!"

She took a deep breath.

"And I will figure out what, and I _will_ save him. But not right now."

The boy didn't answer. He kept looking at her. She turned to him, and saw he had paled.

"I'm not giving up", she said, chin high.

Her friend nodded.

"You better not", Plagg commented, appearing from nowhere and landing on her shoulder.

Nino jumped back. Marinette didn't blame him: talking flying cats took some getting used to. She looked to the Kwami.

"Have you been here for long?"

He yawned.

"No. I was following you."

Nino pointed to the Kwami, opened his mouth, closed it, and let his hand drop.

Marinette focused on the important things.

"Do you have _any_ idea of where Picture Perfect vanished to?"

Plagg shook his head.

"No. But I think I have good news."

He was really _not_ good at sharing information.

"What news?" Marinette asked.

"His Akuma is Feathertail's, I think. The one we freed from Hawk Moth's control. Picture Perfect did not talk to Hawk Moth at all in the park. I didn't spot the butterfly sign."

"That means Hawk Moth _can_ _'_ _t_ control Adrien?"

Plagg let out a long suffering sigh.

"No. That means ' _maybe_ _'_. And that means 'for a time'."

By that point, Nino's brain had stopped spinning.

"For a time? I didn't follow much of what you just said, but… HOW do turn that 'for a time' into 'forever'?"

"We purge the Akuma", Plagg replied. "Which we can't do, because we do not have a Ladybug. And it won't be long before Hawk Moth tries to reclaim that Akuma."

The lights inside the mansion turned on.

"What _else_ can we do, then?" Nino insisted.

"Boys", Marinette said.

"It's none of your puny little human business", Plagg replied.

"Booooys", she tried again.

"This puny little human would do anything to help his best friend so maybe you could be more helpful!" Nino argued.

"Booooooooooys, there's someone inside."

"The puny little human would only get himself paralyzed again", the Kwami pointed out, "but he can try, no fur off my-"

There was a white flash on the mansion's second floor, and Plagg was sucked away. He twirled in the air and vanished through one of the lit windows.

"What is happening?" Nino asked, his voice strangled.

A woman in black and white - the invisible Akuma, except no longer cloaked by magic - was thrown out of the window, and threw a ball of black ink at the ground under her to cushion her fall.

" _Run_ ", Marinette exclaimed.

Chat Noir jumped out of the window too, his hand shrouded by the magic of a Cataclysm attack.

" _RUN_ ", the teenage girl shouted again, pushing Nino away from the manor.

They fled.

Behind them, the two Akumas kept fighting.

 _Chat Noir only has a few moments_ , Marinette thought. Her legs were barely carrying her.

He had used Cataclysm. He only had a few minutes. And now, Hawk Moth knew who he was.

###

###

###

 _Annnnnnd... Hiatus while I'm participating to the Nanowrimo. I'm so sorry! I'll try to hurry with those 50k words!_


	13. Chapter 13

Notes: I didn't get the time to reply to the reviews so THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE. I tried to sneak in a little fic writing after hitting my daily requirements for the nanowrimo :)

* * *

Tikki had been moved to Hawk Moth's lair - a room filled will butterflies, all of them fragments of Makko, all of them silent little bits of her essence with none of her spirit - and the place gave her chills. The chills were nothing compared to the horror she felt in Hawk Moth's presence, however. He came and went, was never there for long, and mostly ignored her, but… Still.

She had never known Argus that well. The Butterflies had been a team of their own, and had moved in different circles than the previous Ladybug. But he wasn't _that._ He had never been meant to be _that_. She understood why he had let Hawk Moth in - humans were naive and fragile in their own way - and she felt sorry for him. As most of Hawk Moth's hosts, he had given a little and been robbed of everything else he was. Whatever had happened to him, and no matter how tragic it was… He was a new kind of frightening. He was no war lord, he was no black knight, he was no ravager, but that time had been long gone well before Argus had fallen. Hawk Moth adapted. He learned from his hosts, too, and it so happened that he had now learned to stay out of reach.

Once upon a time, he could not have been kept away from a fight. He would have joined his Akumas on the field. He had been defeated there.

No longer.

How did you fight a monster you couldn't find?

Tikki had not tried to talk to him anymore. It was pointless. Hawk Moth loved to gloat, and whatever was left of the man underneath was so walled in it could not listen. She observed her enemy as he handled his own issues.

Something had gone sour on the outside, and she was not sure she understood what.

Hawk Moth was observing Plot Hole and commanding her to find someone, though Tikki had no idea whom at first. The problem made itself clearer as the man's discussion with his servant went on. "He needs to be reassimilated", he said at some point. "He will go after his father". "Wait in his house".

Tikki could not see through the woman's eyes as he did, but she pieced things together quickly enough.

She was to lie in wait in Adrien Agreste's house, waiting for the boy to show up. He was possessed by a rogue Akuma - Tikki could picture it: it _always, always, always_ ended that way when Plagg had to try his paws at exorcism - and had turned against his friends and family.

Neither Plot Hole nor Hawk Moth knew they were actually going after Chat Noir, and Tikki prayed for things to remain that way.

She held her breath as she listened to their enemy's instructions. They were growing terser and terser.

"Don't let him see you."

"Slower."

"Focus, or he will _feel_ your pr-"

And then he froze.

For a few seconds, he didn't move at all, every muscle in his body rigid, his jaw clenched. She could read the shock on his face. It was no glee, but there was nothing good in that expression.

He turned to her, grabbed her cage, and shook it hard.

" _Is that Plagg_ _'_ _s idea of cleverness?_ " he spat at her, throwing the cage on the floor so hard even the magical ink twisted. " _How. Dare. He?_ _"_

The Kwami stared at him, stunned by his rage.

Every butterfly around was turning violet. The light in the room was going out.

Hawk Moth looked down at Tikki, deathly still. He composed himself.

 _Plagg, what have you DONE?_ she asked herself.

It couldn't be good. Hawk Moth should have been overjoyed to have discovered the identity of a Miraculous wielder. This… Was unexpected, and even more worrying.

"This won't stand", he quietly said.

The butterflies turned entirely black.

He walked out.

###

Marinette ran and ran, as fast as she could, following Nino until they reached a larger street with enough traffic noise for her friend not to hear her footsteps slow down. She watched him continue to run, unaware that she had let go of him, and had merely closed a hair clip on the back of his t-shirt, over the bundle of cloth she had been holding a moment before.

She turned on her heel and raced back to the Agreste's mansion.

A few _moments_. Just a few _moments_. She had to get there quickly, before Chat Noir turned back into Adrien (or, rather, Picture Perfect). She had to get his Miraculous back. More than that, she had to save her partner.

He was still fighting the other Akuma when she ran through the gates. His hand was still covered in black magic. He had not used Cataclysm yet. His opponent was not letting him reach her, avoiding him by sinking into the stained ground, and reappearing at random. He was quick, but he could not teleport (unless Picture Perfect's powers carried over to Chat Noir, but they still required photographs).

Marinette hurried to the closest door to get out of sight. She found herself in a room full of tools and cleaning supplied, obviously the staff's supplies room. She looked around, hoping to find something useful.

She couldn't see Chat Noir use his cataclysm, but she both felt and heard the magic being unleashed. The room trembled.

If she didn't get an idea _very_ soon, all hope was lost. That Akuma would pull Picture Perfect inside one of her ink holes and bring him straight to Hawk Moth. Marinette turned by increments, cataloging everything, and finally came up with a plan.

When she walked out to find a crater where the stairs leading to the front door had been. Chat Noir had grabbed their enemy and was trying to scratch the ink she was spreading over the pavement. It didn't work.

" _Deus ex machina!"_ The woman snapped.

Chat Noir and Marinette looked up, waiting to see an anvil drop out of the sky.

That didn't happen.

A rocket appeared on Chat Noir's left side and crashed into him. He was sent flying, landing a few meters away, and struggled to get up.

"HEY!" Marinette shouted, turning to the ink-woman with her improvised weapon. "I think you act is getting a bit too dark! Why don't you water it down?"

And she turned the valve of the fire hose she was holding, pointing it straight at her enemy.

That worked wonders. The woman spluttered, her ink dripping away from her clothes, and mixing with a growing pool of clear water on the ground. Marinette dropped the fire hose, still pointed in her direction, and ran to Chat Noir.

"Can you walk?" she asked, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

"I, uh, think so?"

She pulled him up and dragged him towards the house. She pushed him inside and slammed the door closed.

"Where can we find pictures of you?"

He was starting to look a little less "rocket-to-the-face" confused.

"What are you _doing?_ " he exclaimed.

"Getting you out of here", she replied. "In your room? Help me, will you? This place is gigantic."

"I have some in the stud-"

"Where?"

He pointed towards the stairs, and she grabbed his wrist and started running, nearly carrying him up the steps. She opened the first door at the top of the stairs. It did look like a study. There were a few dozen magazines with Adrien on the cover in it, anyway, so it was good enough.

"What are you DOING?" he asked again, snatching his wrist away. He swallowed, hesitant. "I'm the _villain_."

The last paw on his ring flickered.

She grinned.

"I'm _taking a chance on you_ ", she said as the magic started to wear off, revealing Picture Perfect's white suit and the golden butterfly on his face. An exhausted Plagg dropped from the air, and Adrien caught the Kwami before it hit the floor. He held him against his chest, protective, but without paying attention to the creature at all. He was focused on Marinette.

"You can't stay, she will _hurt_ you!"

"I can run pretty fast", Marinette retorted, smiling. "And I promise I'll find a glass of water I can throw in her face as soon as you are gone."

"I'm not leaving you here to d-"

She pushed him to the closest wall, where a giant print of his latest perfume ad was pinned.

"GO."

He stared at her and took her hand.

"I'm not going anywhere!"

She breathed in, closing her eyes.

"My bedroom. You know where it is. There's a picture of you. Find it. I'll join you", she said.

"I'll try to take you with me!"

She squeezed his hand back.

He walked into the poster, half of his body disappearing, and slowly tried to pull her into the picture. It didn't work, however. She bumped against the wall.

She smiled and sighed, forcing herself not to look at his hand. She steeled herself. Then, she closed her fingers around his Miraculous, and tried to pull it away. It only took a split second for Adrien to realize what she was doing. He tore his hand away from her, clenching it into a fist. He gave her a betrayed look quickly replaced by loathing, and vanished into the poster.

Along with his Miraculous.

###


	14. Chapter 14

Note: Thank you **so much** for your comments, everyone!

* * *

Nino ran towards the Agreste's home, panting into his phone. All he could hear on the other side of the line was the tonality, and barely, at that: the sound of his footsteps and his hoarse breathing covered everything else. He had no idea when he had lost Marinette - it couldn't be _that_ long ago - but she sure was fast. And possibly dead.

Alya finally picked up.

"Nino?"

"AlyaisAurorestillwithyou?"

"What? Uh? No, no, she went home. Is something wrong?"

Nino shook his head, then realized his friend couldn't hear gestures.

"No, no", he said between pants. "I just remembered I gave her my MP3 player earlier, I wanted it back. Nevermind."

"Are you lying to me? What's wrong?"

"MUST CATCH MY BUS BYE!"

There was no point in alarming her. She was out of powers. She was out of energy. And he was in sight of Adrien's home, anyway. He ran through the gates.

There was a crater where the stairs had been, and the place was _filled_ with black butterflies: dozens flying around, and just as many on the walls and ground. The pavement was covered with dried ink.

That woman was probably still there, but Nino couldn't see nor hear a fight. He looked around. Some butterflies landed on him, and he jumped away, trying to brush them off.

 _Not again!_

He tried to stay calm, not to get angry, because that was how the Akumas got in to begin with: through the rage, the frustration, the pain. No matter what Aurore said about "good kinds of anger", Nino really didn't think it was a good idea to go down that path. How long before you stopped using it, and it started using _you_?

Not that he was calm. Not that he was peaceful. He was so worried about Marinette and Adrien. He was… Furious. She had not trusted him to help them, she…

A butterfly sank into his arm.

He squealed and tried to pull it out, but the blackness that covered the insect spread over his fingers, and hand.

 _The right kind of anger_ , he told himself.

Which wasn't anger at all, though it felt like it.

 _Determination._

He had to help his friends.

The front door of the mansion opened, and a hooded man in a purple suit walked out, holding Marinette up by the throat. She was trying to kick him and to scratch his hands away, but was growing weak.

 _Will._

The man threw Marinette to the ground.

"Once again, child. Where. Did. He. Go?"

She coughed. Her lower lip started quivering.

"I-I-I-I don't k-knoooooooooowww", she wailed. "He j-j-just r-ran away, ov-over the walls a-and he left m-me here all a-a-alooooone."

It was so unlike Marinette that Nino wondered how her assailant could fall for it.

The man did not. He crouched, snorting. Black butterflies swarmed around her.

"Once again", he said. "But without the lies. Where did Chat Noir g-"

Marinette kicked him in the face with both feet and rolled away. The butterflies covered her.

 _Purpose._

Nino focused on saving her and a pink glow swept over him, peeling the black magic away, and pushing the butterfly out of his arm.

The man turned to him. Nino looked down at himself. He had not transformed. He felt normal. The only thing that had changed was that his bubble wand had somehow made its way from his bedroom to his hand.

The stranger pointed his cane at Nino, sending the butterflies after him in a swarm. The teenager took a few steps back, until he hit a wall. Cornered, he blew a soap bubble - what else could he do? - then watched it grow and grow in front of him. It didn't trap the butterflies, it didn't fly up, it did… Nothing. Except block the insects' way, which was not _bad_ , but still not as useful as the boy had hoped.

 _Oh._

Nino walked through the soap and into the bubble. It was like entering a hamster ball: it rolled as he walked. The butterflies landed on it, or dove into it and bounced back. They could not get through the soap. Now, if Nino could give one to Marinette…

He tried to walk to her, rolling forward amid the cloud of Akumas. He wasn't that far from his friend. As long as he walked in a straight line, he could get to her, and hopefully grab her. The creatures were trying to push him back, however: the more he advanced, the more they pressed against his bubble, and threw themselves by dozens against it. Then, they scattered, and a gloved hand tore through the soap film of Nino's bubble, grabbing him by the collar.

"Another magic thief?" the man said. "Let me remind you how you came by those powers to begin with, boy."

His hand glowed black, and a pink butterfly outline appeared over his face. Nino felt like a slimy claw was twisting through his mind, digging up every fear and frustration, trying to take what little darkness he had to make it grow. The teenager tried to free himself, and focused. _Purpose. Marinette. Adrien._

Pink light mingled with the man's black magic, which seemed to surprise him as much as it did Nino. His hand clenched the boy's throat tighter.

Marinette - the shape of her, all wrapped in shimmering black and violet - jumped on their assailant and pulled him to the ground. Nino fell back down the stairs, holding onto his bubble wand for dear life. He got to his feet, watching Marinette roll over the villain and try to hold him down.

"How are you not under my control?" the man exclaimed, trying to free himself.

Marinette's blue eyes were the only thing you could still see of her. She joined both hands and hit him in the face.

"I'm not. About. To _give up_. And. WALLOW", she replied, hitting him over and over again.

It didn't do much damage: she was still a teenager, and he was still a grown man. He threw her aside easily enough.

Nino blew another bubble around himself, and grabbed Marinette to pull her inside it. The black magic around her washed away when she went through the soap.

She immediately got to her feet. Her friend breathed in, squeezing her hand.

"JUMP!" he yelled.

They jumped.

The bubble flew up.

###

Picture Perfect fell out of Marinette's bedroom wall, straight onto her desk. He crashed to the floor with a pile of drawings, a box of pencils, and her headphones. He pushed the mess away, getting back to his feet, fists clenched. He was vaguely aware of Plagg slipping away to land on the mezzanine, but he did not care.

 _She tried to take my Miraculous._

He kicked the box of pencils away.

She had tried to take his Miraculous. He had nearly believed her - he had _absolutely_ believed her - when she had said she was taking a chance on him. She had come to _help_ him. She had saved him. She had risked everything. But the only thing she had wanted from him was the _ring_. It had all been a _lie_. Yet _another_ lie. People were only ever interested in having him follow their own agenda. They did not care about him unless he did what they wanted.

"She tried to take my Miraculous", he said aloud, because he could not get the words out of his mind.

Maybe she was an Akuma. Maybe she was an illusion.

Or maybe things had been exactly as they seemed: she had tried to trick him, because she did not trust him.

Why else would she have gone after the ring?

"Why _would_ she?" He asked, looking up at Plagg.

The Kwami looked down at him, eyes wide and glowing green in the dark.

A moment passed.

"I told her to", the black cat announced.

That hit Adrien like a blow to the gut.

" _What?_ " he murmured. Rage took over. " _WHAT?_ "

He jumped on the stairs and climbed up to the mezzanine. Plagg, as exhausted as he was, hissed and flew down to Marinette's desk.

"You _traitor_ ", Picture Perfect snapped, holding on to the anger, instead of acknowledging how much the words had hurt him.

"I didn't pick you so you could become the very thing you are meant to fight", the Kwami retorted, sounding much older and meaner than his usual self.

"What do you _mean_?"

"Maybe you fancy yourself the next Argus", Plagg growled, "thinking you are better off as a monster. But if you go down that path, it won't be with me."

Picture Perfect made sure his ring was still right there on his finger, and pushed it closer to his palm.

"Watch me."

Plagg didn't move. His eyes shone greener.

"I should have expected this", he murmured. "The apple couldn't-"

Footsteps on the other side of Marinette's bedroom door interrupted him. Someone knocked on the door. Adrien hid himself.

The door opened on Mrs. Dupain-Cheng.

"Are you home, sweetie?" she called, turning the lights on.

Then, she sighed.

"It must have been a noise outside, dear", she called to someone else.

She took a look around, shook her head, and left, closing the door behind her.

 _Her parents are worried about her._

Of course they would be. Normal parents would be. Gabriel, on the other hand, had called his being possessed by an evil spirit "a tantrum" and had blamed him for everything. Obviously, having his son turn into a villain would not agree with his company's reputation, nor his own.

Marinette's parents loved her.

And she would not be coming back.

"We need to go back", he whispered.

Plagg growled.

"We need to help Marinette!" Adrien snapped. "Now!"

"She will be fine", the Kwami said.

"Are you _insane_?" the blond hissed. "She's just a girl."

Plagg flew to the window and pushed it open.

"Be that as it may", he replied, "I am not handing myself over to Hawk Moth."

He jumped out.

Adrien ran to the window and stared outside, horrified, then turned to the picture of him he had arrived through. One of the six pictures of him. Marinette, who was a fan of a boy who did not exist. Marinette, who couldn't get two words out straight in his presence. Marinette, who had dragged him away from a supervillain and had saved his life.

He dove into the largest picture.

###


	15. Chapter 15

Thanks again for all of your comments!

* * *

Picture Perfect jumped out of that poster of himself in his father's study, and ran. Marinette was not in the room, but the door was open and the furniture turned over and broken. Plot Hole was nowhere in sight. Not it meant she was not around, of course.

He ran to the stairs, looking for signs of Marinette, and stopped dead in his tracks. There were black butterflies everywhere in the main hallway, most of them around the door. He turned back and looked outside from the study's windows.

There were more butterflies outside, hundreds of them.

It had never happened before. He had never seen more than a single Akuma at once. It could only mean Hawk Moth was there.

 _No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no._

Picture Perfect didn't mind being possessed. It made him stronger, more confident, and not quite as miserable. It was all fine and dandy, as long as it was just _him._ No matter what Plagg said, he was not the next Argus. He was not evil. He would not turn against Ladybug, he would never hurt her, nor her family, _ever_. He would not be the next Argus and she would not be the next Clover, and nobody would die because of him. He just wanted to be himself for a while, to stop listening to his father's voice, telling him how much of a disappointment he was.

He was fine.

However, as fine as he was, he couldn't imagine Marinette dragged to that place. He had made himself a cozy armor out of thorns and shards, but had been cut and scratched on his way there. It was a safe place to hide in, but it was not a nice one, and it wasn't really good for you, was it?

Marinette - who was not that shy, after all, and who maybe had questionable taste in boys - did not deserve to be hurt like that. She was strong and sassy and maybe not perfect (and a bit hot-headed, now that he thought about it), but she was such a good person. And brave. Brave enough to try to take his Miraculous from him, when he so clearly did not deserve it. He couldn't let Hawk Moth get to her. He couldn't let an Akuma corrupt her.

He opened the window and sneaked out to assess the situation. The courtyard was crawling with Akumas, and Hawk Moth was there. He was not alone: he was fighting Nino, who was trying to get away. They were wrapped in a mix of pink and blackish magic, with the pink being quickly smothered down. Adrien nearly jumped down to rescue his friend, but a dark shape attacked Hawk Moth and pulled him down. A girl shape.

 _Marinette_.

She was _covered_ with Akumas, from head to toe. But… They didn't seem to impact her.

"I'm not. About. To give up. And. WALLOW", she yelled, hitting Hawk Moth with both fists.

 _She_ _'s Ladybug._

No one else would have resisted. No one else could have.

 _How did you not see it before?_

The strength, the courage, the cheeky way she had talked to him, when he had rescued her as Chat Noir. Of _course_ it was Marinette.

 _And she fancies you_ , his treacherous brain added, despite the horrible circumstances. He shook his head to chase the thoughts away.

He inched closer, frantic to rescue her but not certain of how much damage he could take as Picture Perfect. As Chat Noir, he wouldn't have hesitated to jump down, but now? He was not sure he would not break his neck. He was trying to climb down when Nino managed to pull Marinette into a new, pink soap bubble, which cleaned her from the Akumas.

The bubble flew up and over the courtyard's walls, then popped.

Hawk Moth sent his butterflies after them.

Adrien jumped down.

###

The bubble exploded as soon as it went over the Agreste's mansion's gates, sending Nino and Marinette crashing, but neither of them bothered to check if they had been injured by they fall. They got back up and ran as fast as they could, as far away as possible, not slowing down until the black butterflies stopped chasing them. Even then, the teenagers keep trotting, panting and exhausted, until they were absolutely sure Hawk Moth had given up.

They both collapsed on the sidewalk.

"Adrien", Nino gasped out. "Where is Adrien?"

"He got out", Marinette replied, sitting on the pavement and taking in her torn pants and bloody knees." He'll be… Angry… But he got out."

Nino sighed in relief, then collected his breath.

"Just so you know, you were, like, super badass. I mean, wow!"

"Thanks. You did great. How long have you been able to do that bubble thing?"

"That's new, actually. And you're totally Ladybug."

She panted for a while and ignored his last comment. Not that it changed his mind. She could have provided a fifty slides powerpoint presentation why Nino was wrong, and he wouldn't have been swayed. The way she had resisted those butterflies had been awesome.

"So", he asked, "was that guy the villain who turns people into villains?"

"Hawk Moth."

"He called me a magic thief."

Marinette texted someone, then turned to him.

"If my parents call you, I'm having a sleepover at your place. If it's my mom, we are _not_ getting married."

"Err…"

"You need to go find Alya", Marinette said. "And Aurore. And Alix, if she has powers too. All of you, stay together. If he thinks you _stole_ his magic, he might try to get it back. You will have better chances to defend yourself as a team."

She got to her feet and brushed the dirt off her clothes.

"Waaaiiiit!" Nino exclaimed. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to get _help_ , she said. We're going to have to get _creative_."

###

Fury bubbled into Picture Perfect's chest, turning into hatred, and loathing. The closer he got to Hawk Moth, the stronger the feelings grew.

His enemy had not noticed him yet, too focused on his Akuma and on catching Marinette and Nino. His back was still turned. Adrien took a step forward, then another, and the darkness felt harder and harder to resist. He didn't know if it come from inside him, or if the villain somehow corrupted him, just by being close.

The urge to strike him was overwhelming.

Hawk Moth tense, tilting his head ever so slightly to the side, then smiling confidently and turning to Picture Perfect.

"How nice of you to deliver yourself, boy."

Adrien snarled. He didn't remember having ever snarled in his life. He had never felt that kind of rage either.

But this was Hawk Moth. He was a _monster_. They had been facing him for so long, and he had never dared to show his face until now. He had been too much of a coward, just like the kind of man who would track down his fellow heroes and attack them in their homes. Like the kind of man who would use teenagers to do his bidding.

His Miraculous was pinned to his collar - a pink butterfly, just like Plagg had said - and if Adrien could take it away, most of the villain's power would vanish. He would still be an Akuma, and he would still be strong, but not nearly as invulnerable. Chat N… Adrien just had to snatch that little piece of jewelry.

He attacked, with a kick then with a punch, just as fast as Picture Perfect as as Chat Noir. Against anyone else, he would have landed two perfect blows, but Hawk Moth side-stepped and dodged, slamming his fist against Adrien's chest. The boy dropped and rolled out of reach. That had hurt. More than it would have hurt Chat Noir, yet much less than if he had not been transformed at all.

Hawk Moth clicked his tongue.

"Too slow", he commented.

He looked so stiff with that suit and that cane. Adrien had let himself forget that the man had once been a hero. Of course, he could fight.

Which just meant Picture Perfect had to do better.

He grinned and pounced. He saw Hawk Moth prepare his next move - pushing Adrien's full weight away after the incoming fall - so he grabbed the man's shoulders and flipped past his head. He whirled as he land, tripping Hawk Moth, and tore the Miraculous away from his collar. _Got it!_ The villain reached for the butterfly, but Adrien rolled out of reach, grinning. He held the Miraculous up.

Nothing happened.

Hawk moth laughed and got back to his feet.

"Such naivety", he said. "Did you really think I would be as foolish as the two of you?"

Adrien looked at the Miraculous. It was plastic. Cheap, painted plastic.

He dropped it.

Hawk Moth walked to him.

"Now, hand over your ring, boy."

Adrien tried to trip him, failed, and went for a kick that his opponent blocked easily enough. His anger was pulsing inside him. He could hear his own pulse. The world was getting darker.

Hawk Moth grabbed the front of his suit and black magic pooled around his hand, spreading over and inside Adrien's chest.

"Give me the ring", he said, as that slimy darkness pooled around the boy's heart.

Adrien kicked his chest with both feet, propelling himself away. Pink sparkles flew around them both. Hawk Moth stumbled, but didn't fall.

"It would be easier for you to obey, boy."

"Never."

Black butterflies swarmed around Hawk Moth, landing on his extended arm.

"Do you intend to fight me to the death, then?"

Adrien heard the words in his mind a second before his enemy uttered them. The golden butterfly mask on his face shone pink.

Hawk Moth would not fight him. He would not _need_ to. All he had to do was take over Picture Perfect's Akuma.

 _I won_ _'t let you into my mind,_ Adrien thought.

The villain did not react, which was a relief in itself. He had not heard the words.

"I might just do that", the boy bluffed. "I might just win."

"Aren't you overly optimistic? Then again, what else could I expect from a child?"

"I know who you are", the teenager said, standing up. " _Argus._ You were too _weak_ to fight the others fairly. You had to go after them when they were not transformed, when they couldn't use their powers. I'm not afraid of you."

Hawk Moth laughed, and laughed, and laughed, his magic seeping out of him and covering him in a glimmering violet coat. It swallowed his face, his hands, his entire body, until all Adrien could see was an Akuma.

"You are right, boy. I won't fight you fairly. What about I find your father and _then_ ask you nicely to surrender your Miraculous."

The darkness inside Adrien spoke before the boy could think.

"Do whatever you want with him", he spat. "He wants nothing to do with me, I want nothing to do with him."

There was a flicker of pink light around Hawk Moth's face. The dark magic receded, just a little, barely enough to discern the mask underneath.

"You'd let your own father die to protect that ring?" the villain replied, chuckling. "Or just out of spite, maybe?"

The Akuma was laughing. The man under all of that magic was not, however. He was not even talking. His lips were drawn into a thin line.

 _No_ , Adrien thought.

"Yes", the darkness inside him said out loud.

Hawk Moth laughed again, his fist clenching and unclenching as he pulled the ropes of Picture Perfect's Akuma. It did not work, not entirely. Adrien could still think for himself. He did not know for how long.

Something was strange, however. The entire situation made no sense. Why hadn't Hawk Moth taken the ring already? He could have grabbed Adrien's arm and torn the Miraculous away from him. Why was he threatening him and toying with his mind instead?

 _Because he can_ _'t,_ Adrien realized. _He_ _'s bluffing._

Pink light glittered at the tip of the villain's fingers, the same light as the one that had protected Nino.

Adrien squared his jaw and charged. Hawk Moth dodged, all but flying out of his way. The teenager followed him, jumping from side to side until he managed to grab hold of Hawk Moth's jacket. Violet magic crawled up his arm. It sank into Adrien's flesh, and made the anger worse still.

He tried to get a sense of the source of the magic. Hawk Moth's Miraculous had to be on him, somewhere. Unfortunately, the darkness seemed to come from everywhere at once.

Adrien raised his hand - the one with his ring - and waved it under Hawk Moth's nose.

"Come on, _take it_ ", he railed.

The man grabbed his hand and closed his fingers around the Miraculous.

 _He can_ _'t_ , Adrien told himself. _He can_ _'t._

He prayed to be right.

Hawk Moth's hand trembled and paused. His whole arm shook. Then pink light erupted around them, straight from the man's chest, and blew Adrien away. A spot of vivid light shone brightly amid the violet gloom that covered Hawk Moth, radiant enough to show through several layers of clothing and, most importantly, butterfly shaped.

Black butterflies flew to Hawk Moth and covered his chest until that spot of light vanished.

Adrien ran.

###

Marinette adjusted her mask, made sure her hoodie covered her face, steeled herself, then knocked on the studio's door.

She heard footsteps. She heard keys. The door opened by an inch, and she elbowed her way inside, past a young man whose clothes were covered in clay, and whose cheek was stained with brown paint.

"I need your help", she said, ignoring his yell of surprise.

She just walked straight inside, then stood in the middle of the studio, arms crossed.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING, KIDDO?" he shouted, gesturing at the door. "Get out of here!"

She raised both hands and tried to convince herself she was ten years older.

"I know you have been stopping bank robberies", she announced.

He froze.

"Which means you still have your powers", she continued. "Now, _Theo_ , I _really_ don't have any time to waste here. I. Need. Your. Help."

###


	16. Chapter 16

"So how many siblings do you have?" Aurore asked Alya, after yet another one the blogger's little sisters had to be chased away from her room.

"A few", Alya replied.

"Exact answer unclear", Alix commented. "Varies every day. Ranges from 'one' to 'seventeen'."

"There's at least two!" Aurore argued. "One _this_ height and one _that_ height."

Alya ignored the discussion about the sizes, names, and existence of her siblings, and focused on her computer screen. Nino had called her to get them to regroup, so they had, though the three of them were still waiting for him. Unsurprisingly, a flying girl and one mounted on rollerblades had made their way to Alya's much faster than a boy on foot.

Something bad was happening. He had not explained what. He had told her he'd explain as soon as he got there.

"Keep an eye on the news", he had said. "I'm on my way."

His friend was watching every news channel at once.

"Everyone was unfrozen", she announced as one of her feeds panned over the park.

The freshly released victims of Picture Perfect were being interviewed, and Alya listened to their stories through one earbud. Her other ear was turned to her friends, who started speculating.

"Did the magic wear off?" Alix wondered.

"Or maybe Adrien got tired?"

"Or Ladybug came back and helped him?" the pink-haired girl wondered.

Alya shook her head.

"I don't know. Nino was saying something really _bad_ was going on. It's-"

She heard the words "devastated mansion" and turned back to her screen just in time to see a reporter point at the Agreste's home. The camera followed him through the mansion's open gates, and panned over the half-destroyed courtyard. The ground was stained with ink, the pavement upturned and crumbling. She gaped. Aurore and Alix joined her, and stared in disbelief.

"That's not good", Alix said, swallowing audibly.

Aurore breathed in and did not comment.

Alya unplugged her headphones.

"That's not g-"

The doorbell rang.

"Here's Nino", the blogger said. "I guess he'll explain everything."

She stood, barely managing to tear her eyes away from the screen. Her younger sister ran in.

"There's a 'mister' here to see you!" she exclaimed. "Come, come, come!"

 _Mister?_

She let the child grab her wrist and drag her to the apartment's entrance. She could hear her parents talking to the newcomer.

"… expect a visit this late in the evening", her mother was saying. "She had friends over, but-"

"I'm aware the hour is not ideal, but I had no other openings in my schedule, and I'd like to discuss the deal as soon as possible", Gabriel Agreste said just as Alya walked out of the living room and into the hallway. "I'm sure you understand."

"Of course, we… Oh, Alya. Mister _Agreste_ would like to talk to you about advertising on your website!"

The girl gaped, then collected herself and went to shake the man's hand. He crushed all of her phalanges and mist of her metacarpal bones, and nodded.

"As I was telling your parents, your 'superhero' 'blog' shows promises and I think it would be a good fit for our teenage fashion's promotional campaign."

She blinked. The man had interesting priorities, what with his son currently being a supervillain.

"I, uh, yes", she replied. Then she saw the horrified look on her parents' faces. "I mean, I am so very flattered you think so, I can't even express how amazed I am, and yes, advertising, I, uh…" - She tried to remember a few words that weren't straight out of a kindergarten vocabulary book. - "I believe that can be arranged at your earliest convenience. I mean, I have an open spot, the leaderboard banner, you might have seen-"

"MAYBE YOU COULD DISCUSS IT AROUND COFFEE", Alya's mother blurted out.

Gabriel Agreste gave her a cold look, but nodded. A moment later, Alya was sitting alone in the living room with Adrien's father, with her sisters spying from the hallway, her parents spying from the kitchen, and her friends spying from her bedroom.

She stood and went to close all of those doors.

"So, sir, I'm, err, surprised you'd come to me today of all days. I mean, your house was on the news", she said.

"I called contractors already", he replied, sipping his coffee.

She dropped back into the sofa.

"What kind of advertising did you have in mind? Do you have specific requests or-"

Mister Agreste waved his hand dismissively.

"My assistant will contact you about that, so your parents don't get suspicious. But, Miss Wifi, what I actually need from you and your friend Sunny Weather", he told her, pointing at her bedroom door, "is to help me find my son."

###

"You are a kid", Theo said.

"That's not relevant right now!" Marinette exclaimed.

"It's relevant all the time! God, this is so embarrassing. I thought you were in your twenties."

"Quantic perception altering magical suit", she snapped back. "Can we focus?"

"How old are you exactly?"

"HELLO! I SAID 'NOT RELEVANT'!"

"I think it's fairly relevant when the city's hero is probably still in preschool!"

"This preschooler might not be able to transform right now but she can _still_ kick your ass!"

He blinked.

"Not able to transform?"

"Now he's catching on", Marinette mumbled. "Yes, not able to transform. That's why I'm here. We need you. The city needs you. _Chat Noir_ needs you. Now, are you listening?"

###

The first words out of Mister Agreste's mouth, right after he had announced being fully aware of Alya's superhero persona, had been "I suspect you'd prefer keeping your family in the dark. Why don't we move this conversation to my office?"

He had managed to convince her parents to let her leave their home at nine in the evening, to follow him to his place. Well, he had not "convinced them", per se. He had told them Alya would be driving home with him, and left no room for protest. Like Chloé, he operated on the assumption that if you did not show weakness when ordering people around, they would obey.

Aurore and Alix followed them to his car.

"Miss Borell", Gabriel greeted them when they caught up with Alya and him in front of the building. "Miss…"

"That's a cool ride", Alix had said, looking at the limousine rather than at Gabriel Agreste.

That was the rudest avoidance tactic Alya had ever seen, but it worked. The man clicked his tongue and sat inside the car, his back to the driver. The three girls lined up on the opposite seat.

"So, Miss", he asked Alix. "Do you have superpowers too?"

Alix rolled her eyes.

"No way. I just didn't want to stay up there with the brats swarm."

Alya glared. Her sisters were not brats. Not that she could deny the "swarm" part.

Mister Agreste leaned back into his seat and told the chauffeur to start driving. Then, he studied the girl's faces. Alix and Alya shifted, uneasy. Aurore gave him a benign smile.

"Sir, this is such an honor!" she said.

He drummed his fingers on his lap.

"Tell me about the extent of your powers", he replied. "The two of you."

Alya cleared her throat and looked to Aurore. Neither of them felt like disclosing details about their abilities, especially not to someone they barely knew.

He waited. When the two teenagers kept "aheming" and "uherring", he pursed his lips.

"Let us summarize the situation", he said. "My son seems to have been transformed into a magical criminal, who goes around terrorizing strangers and forcing them to divulge their utmost secrets. Ladybug, who usually intervenes instantly when such a thing happens, has not shown. It leads me to assume she's missing, or injured, or worse. Furthermore, I have been informed that Chat Noir was spotted fighting yet another 'villain' right in my own courtyard, not an hour ago. I do not _care_ about your abilities and what you intend to do with them. I only care about Adrien, and no one _else_ seems to possess the powers necessary to stop him right now. Trust me, I wouldn't turn to children if my options were not so limited."

The car parked. It was a short drive from Alya's to Adrien's.

The blogger looked at Mister Agreste, not moving from her seat.

"We were going to help him anyway, sir."

He closed his eyes, mulled over that, then shook his head and got out of the car. He gestured for them to follow.

He had not lied about the contractors, Alya noted when they walked into the courtyard. A dozen men were cleaning the place, removing the rubble, and taking measurements. Mister Agreste walked around the crater, and opened the mansion's doors.

Alya was a bit surprised no one was doing that for him. Where was his assistant? She was no longer paralyzed in the park. Maybe she had quit. The teenager was sure being abandoned after a supervillain attack was a good reason to find oneself a new job.

"Man, this place is gloomy", Alix murmured when they entered the mansion.

It wasn't really gloomy, Alya thought. Just empty, and chilling. It was beautifully decorated, but it didn't look lived in.

The place fitted its owner. She felt sorry for Adrien.

Mister Agreste walked them to his office.

It was wide, with a high ceiling and sharp angles everywhere. Ads for the various Agreste brand products were framed on the walls. One of the frames was empty, but Alya was willing to bet that "Gabriel" perfume ad with Adrien's picture had been in there recently enough.

"Take a seat", Gabriel said, sitting behind his desk.

They obeyed, all but dropping into the three chairs facing the desk. His "order, don't offer" trick worked very well.

He leaned forward.

"Are you a good friend of my son?" he asked Alya.

"I, uh, _yes?_ I mean, I'm not his _best_ friend, whom you _know_ and who is very nice, by the way. But I'm Adrien's friend, yes."

He pursed his lips, nodded, and turned to Aurore.

"And you, miss, would be a 'fangirl'?"

Aurore gaped.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I recall seeing him sign a postcard for you."

"I, ah, that was just once. And Adrien is so very talented, who wouldn't appreciate his work?"

Once again, Gabriel Agreste replied with total, unnerving silence.

Alya, ever the journalist, looked around. There was nothing personal in the room (if you discounted the fact that Gabriel's company's products were mostly named after him, which was personal enough). No pictures, no photos of his son, of his wife, noth… Well, there was a golden necklace wrapped around the tiny flower vase on the corner of the desk, along with a flower shaped pendant decorated with a pearl. That had to mean something to him.

"We are his friends", she affirmed. "We'll do anything we can to stop him, and help him."

Mister Agreste breathed in.

"Good. Then maybe you can talk some sense into him. I would try, but let's be honest, I can only be bait at this point."

"Uh, I don't know if you have noticed, but the people who turn don't exactly listen to reason", Alix pointed out. "I don't see what else can be done but fight him and kick the black butterfly out."

Aurore cleared her throat.

"Having watched all of the footage of my day as Stormy Weather, sir, I'd say Alix is right."

Mister Agreste snorted.

"So you would fight?" - He shook his head. - "So new to this and already fancying yourselves heroes."

Alix frowned. Aurore smiled, apologetic. Alya put her hands on the desk, and leaned forward.

"It's just, sir, we have been in Adrien's shoes. We might not remember, but everyone _told_ us what we were like. We know ourselves, we can compare what Lady Wifi or Stormy Weather did to who we really are. And we know that _talking_ wouldn't have worked."

"Be that as it may, you are inexperienced, hot-headed children."

"Be that as it may, I thought you wanted our help!"

He stared her down.

"I don't want _heroes_ ", he told her. "Be it Ladybug, her partner, or those who came before them. I have no faith in them."

Alix blinked.

"Wait", she exclaimed. "There were heroes before Ladybug?"

Alya groaned.

"Yeeeeees. It's on my blooooog", she said, getting her tablet out of her bag. "Well, there are some urban legends. Internet was new, back then, so there's not much to find."

She scrolled through her tags list, clicked "other heroes", and located the correct post.

"Aricia and Argus", she said, pushing the tablet under Alix's nose. "The pink butterfly, and the blue butterfly. They worked as a team, and they fought criminals, something like fifteen years ago. Here's a drawing from a newspaper of the time", Alya continued, pointing at a pixelated picture of a woman in a pink costume. "There is not much else. No one knows what happened to them."

"The rumor is they retired", Mister Agreste cut in in a bored voice. "Got married, had children, lived happily ever after. It hardly matters, seeing how they are not here to help us now. Neither are Ladybug and Chat Noir."

Alya gaped and refrained from smothering him with questions.

He took her tablet from her and turned it off. He put it down.

"Adrien's mother used to say that hope was not in the heroes", he said, looking at the pendant attached to the vase on his desk, "but in normal people realizing they could accomplish the extraordinary."

None of the three girls dared to interrupt.

"I never adhered to that theory", Gabriel continued, standing up and walking to the window. "But I find she might have been much wiser than I gave her credit for."

He stared outside while Alya and her friends sat frozen, at a loss for words.

He turned back to them.

"I'll be bait - since my son is so intent on punishing me for my shortcomings - and you, _you_ ", he continued, staring at Alya, "you will have a few moments to get through to him. I suggest you use them well."

###


	17. Chapter 17

"I will devise a plan", Gabriel Agreste had said, "and contact the three of you tomorrow. I figure you all need to rest before attempting any kind of intervention."

That had been his way to close the conversation and throw the three girls out. He had waved a hand towards the door, and started to escort them out. Alya had frowned and followed, Aurore had frowned and followed. Alix had taken a different approach, closer to the "go for the jugular" brand of interaction.

"What do you even know about devising plans?" she asked, while the man was guiding them from hallway to hallway.

Mister Agreste gave her a cold look.

"Aren't you a stylist?" she added. " _Alya_ is more qualified than you are to 'devise a plan' to fight a supervillain. At least she has done her research."

"While you insist on 'fighting' a supervillain, I am still set on _conversing_ with my _son_."

"Yeah, are you sure you're qualified for _that_?" Alix retorted. "You're not going to get a father of the year award."

Gabriel pursed his lips, only for a second. When he replied, his tone was detached.

"Which is why I won't be the one 'conversing'. Had you been paying attention, you would know I'm meant to be the bait."

"It's like the _entire problem_!" the teenager yelled. "Maybe if you actually _talked_ to Adrien every now and then, instead of being _you_ , he wouldn't be in that mess."

Mister Agreste answered that accusation with a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat.

Aurore inched away. Alya considered intervening.

"That hasn't ever occurred to you?" Alix continued. "You know, my dad and my brother fight _all the time_ , but they still like each other. You? Nobody can tell if you like Adrien. Nobody can tell if you care that he _exists_."

Gabriel didn't even slow down.

"Thank you very much for your input", he said, face inscrutable.

His lack of reaction only infuriated Alix.

"And you know how I can tell?" she snapped. "I mean, aside from the whole 'turning into Picture Perfect thing'? You didn't show up on parents' day. You didn't show up, ever. He calls you FATHER."

By that point, they were in sight of the front door, and mister Agreste went to open it.

"My chauffeur will drive you back home", he said, turning to Alya. "I will be in touch."

Alix stomped to the door.

"You are not even going to defend yourself?"

"I am not about to argue with a child", Gabriel retorted. "Have a nice evening."

Alya put her hands on Alix's shoulders before she could strangle the man.

"We'll be waiting for your call", the blogger said, pushing her friend out.

Aurore made sure to give a shy and polite apology, complete with fluttering eyelashes, then followed the two other girls to the car. The contractors had left the mansion while they were inside. It was getting late.

Alya dragged Alix to the gates.

"I can't believe you didn't say anything!" the smaller girl snapped. "You are a coward! He treats Adrien like dirt and you know it!"

Her friend frowned, looking back at the door. She fully intended to give the man her opinion. He didn't scare her, and there was a lot to say. However, it was an argument she wanted to have in private, or at least with different companions. Alix's temper was too explosive.

"I know!" Alya replied. "And you can be sure I'll tell him that _after_ I get to talk to Adrien."

Alix snorted, and stormed out of the courtyard. Her companions joined her by the car and climbed inside.

Then, Alya gasped.

"I forgot my tablet!" she announced, slipping out of the car. "Just go ahead, I'll walk home!"

"But…" Alix protested.

"I live two streets away", the blogger reminded her, waving at the chauffeur. "I'll be fine."

And she closed the car door.

The chauffeur took a long look at her, but drove off.

Alya waited for them to be out of sight, then she pulled her phone out (it was very difficult to keep her internet access from her, and her electronics could not be confiscated for long). She called Nino.

###

The teenage girl that was Ladybug had fallen asleep the second she had sat down on the passenger seat of Theo's car.

She had explained her plan. It was dangerous, but Theo wouldn't have been fighting bank robbers if he had not wanted to be a hero, so… He could get behind the plan, even if his survival was not guaranteed. It was better than letting two kids handle things on their own.

The girl had asked him to drive her to a specific address, so he had, but he couldn't quite bring himself to wake her. She looked beyond exhausted.

Her phone kept buzzing.

He sighed and turned the ignition off. The kid nearly jumped out of her seat.

Theo pursed his lips.

"We're here", he said, pointing to the corner store she had wanted to be driven to.

"Good. Good. Thank you, Theo, I-"

Her phone buzzed again. She swiped the screen with a clumsy finger. Theo saw a "12 new emails" notification.

"I need to go", she said, opening her email app. "You _call me_ , alright?"

"If _you_ are in trouble, _you_ call me, do you understand?"

"I'll be fine", she retorted, running off.

She raced _away_ from the address she had given. Theo swore, got out of the car, but she was already gone.

###

The first email Marinette opened was from Chat Noir, and said "I went back for you and I fought Hawk Moth". That was the first line. She nearly fainted.

He had not been meant to.

She had asked Theo to drive her two streets away from her home, so he wouldn't know who she was, and she had hoped that _maybe_ Adrien would be waiting for her in her room, even after she had tried to take his Miraculous. She had expected him to be long gone, out of anger. That was why she had gotten Theo. She had not considered that he would go back to the mansion to save her.

Obviously, he had arrived after Nino had rescued her.

She stopped running and read the rest of the email.

"Things are bad. The Akuma has a stronger effect. Do not trust me."

She swiped to the next email. Its subject was "More information".

"Hawk Moth cannot touch me. I don't know why, but his Miraculous reacted as soon as he tried to take my ring. Pink light like on Nino. Can you investigate that?"

The next one was a reply to that email.

"We need to know more about Argus too. Something doesn't add up."

 _What?_ Marinette asked herself. They knew the man had once been a hero, but had let Hawk Moth possess him and corrupt his Miraculous. It made him like the other Akuma victims, and yet much worse. He had not been tricked. He had known exactly the kind of monster he was opening his mind to. He had invited him in.

What else was there to know? Did he have a secret Adrien had figured out?

That "pink light" was obviously coming from the Miraculous, maybe from its Kwami - Makko - herself. Was she able to fight the Akuma that had corrupted her Miraculous? Was it why "Miss Wifi" and "Sunny Weather" had powers? And Nino? And Theo? Was that Makko, reaching out?

Marinette wished she could have talked to Tikki, or even to Plagg. Hopefully, Theo would help with that.

She looked at the next email.

It was not from Chat Noir, but from Nino.

"Alya is not home", the subject announced. The message itself was… Unexpected. "Her parents say she went to the Agreste's with Adrien's father, with Alix and Aurore. It's about an "advertising deal" (yeah, sure). I'm on my way there."

She swiped to the next mail. It was from Mylène, about math homework. The next one was from Ivan, about the same math homework. The next ones were all from Chat Noir. They only had subjects.

"Plot hole after me"

"HM talking in my head"

"Hiding near Eiffel Tower"

"PH found me, on the move"

"She can"

"Track me, because Akma"

That mail had been sent two minutes before, and it was the last one.

###

Alya saw Nino hesitate at the end of the street, and take a long look at the mansion. He braced himself, and hurried to join her in front of the gates.

His anxiety was unsurprising: he had seen Hawk Moth fight Ladybug in the courtyard a few hours before, from what he had told Alya on the phone. He had ordered her to put as much distance between herself and the house. Not that she had listened. She had waited for him right next to the mansion, pacing around that egyptian themed statue on the city square.

Nino was still set on getting away from the mansion.

"We can't be here", he said, grabbing her wrist. "The place is _dangerous_."

"Not so fast", she replied, freeing herself. "I'm going back inside, just like I told you."

"I don't _trust_ Gabriel Agreste", he retorted. "We are contacting Ladybug and getting her opinion on this."

"You know how to contact her?"

"Sort of. I saw who she was while she was fighting Hawk Moth. She still can't transform."

Alya gaped.

"WHO?" she yelled. She composed herself. "Who?"

Nino shifted, uneasy.

"Can't tell you", he replied. "It's not my secret."

Alya groaned.

"Don't you think there's a time for secrets?" she snapped. "We're in trouble. Everyone is in trouble. I have superpowers!"

"She knows you do. I'm sure she'll come forward."

"Well, in the meantime, I want to talk to mister Agreste. Again. Without Alix and Aurore being there. He should talk to _you_."

"What for? He's not a good person", Nino replied. "He doesn't care about Adrien, the man is probably just flipping out that having his star model be a supervillain will ruin his advertising campaign."

"I think you are wrong."

"What? Have you met that guy?"

"YES! And that's why I think he does care!"

"Okay, why? What's your proof?"

"Just my intuition."

"Just your intuition", her friend repeated. "YOUR INTUITION IS TERRIBLE."

Alya clenched her jaw, taking a step back.

"It isn't!"

"Yes, it is! Remember that time you unmasked Chloé as Ladybug?"

She groaned.

"That was one time, and I had circumstantial evidence!"

" _Bad_ evidence!"

She huffed and walked away, crossing the street, then walking through the Agreste Mansion's gates. She went to knock on the house's door. Nobody answered, so she pushed it open and peeked inside. Nino, who had followed her, groaned.

"Mister Agreste?" she called. "Is someone here?"

"You're going to trespass", her companion moaned. "In a house that was just attacked by two supervillains."

"Hush. Mister Agreste's office is that way", she replied, pointing at a door.

She went straight for it, ignoring Nino's whispered protests. She navigated back to the office easily enough, considering how big the mansion was. She knocked on the door and peeked in.

"Just come in", Gabriel said from his desk. "I was waiting for you."

He was studying what looked like building plans, and did not look up. He pushed the tablet Alya had "accidentally" "forgotten" towards her.

"Thank you", she said, walking in. "But this is not about the tablet."

"I can't even begin to express my surprise", mister Agreste replied. "You can spare your breath, however. I assure you I'm aware of my failings as a parent. I need no further reminder."

"Well maybe you should get one anyway, dude", Nino commented, walking into the office.

His presence did surprise Adrien's father. The man finally looked up, startled. He blinked, once, then sighed.

"Spare me the rhetoric."

Nino took two steps forward, hands balled into fists.

"No I won't! It's all on you! Adrien becoming Picture Perfect is _all on you_!"

Gabriel ignored him and collected something golden from his desk. He walked past Nino, straight to Alya.

"I believe you'll be needing this", he said, looking at his closed fists. "I should have given it to you earlier. I wasn't thinking."

Alya saw Nino gape and frown.

Gabriel opened his hand, clearly forcing himself to move each finger. He was holding the necklace and flower shaped pendant that had been wrapped around that vase on the desk.

"This belonged to Adrien's mother", he said. "He would recognize it. Whatever demon he is currently struggling with… Whatever the state of mind he's in… I believe seeing the pendant will snap him out of it, if only for a moment. You should wear it."

Alya's eyes went wide. She touched the necklace with the tips of her fingers, hesitant.

"Take it", Gabriel encouraged her, in an emotionless voice.

She picked the pendant up and lifted it. Her hand - her other hand, against her leg - started tickling, and she brushed it against her pants, too focused on the necklace to look down. She had never met Adrien's mother, did not know a single thing about her, but it looked like something the woman might have worn. The flower was delicate, soft, nice, and would have fitted someone with those traits. Adrien's sensitivity and kindness had to come from someone.

Nino gasped. Mister Agreste looked down.

After a moment, Alya noticed the look on their faces, and peeked down. A pink, glowing butterfly was resting on her wrist.

Now, insects usually elicit knee-jerk reactions, no matter how cute and pretty they are. Alya squealed and jumped back, arms twitching. The butterfly flew up, landed on her shoulder, and sank into her clothes, where it vanished.

"I'll assume this… Creature has something to do with your powers?" mister Agreste asked.

"Uh."

It was a _pink_ butterfly. There was no way it was a coincidence, not when one of the previous heroes had been based on that exact same insect.

She really had to find out more about Aricia and Argus. She could probably find old newspapers. In libraries, in archives, or even from collectors… And she had to question adults. Someone had to remember.

"Alya, we should go", Nino cut in, grabbing her wrist.

"Not yet", she replied. "I came here to talk. We came here to talk."

Gabriel rolled his eyes, taking a deep breath and letting it out in a sigh.

"Take your tablet, take the necklace, and please follow your friend's advice. Your parents are most likely wondering why you are taking so long."

"I saw you attack Picture Perfect."

"I'm sorry?"

"I saw you attack Adrien, when he turned. When everyone was frozen. When you tripped him to get the camera. You rolled. You knew you had to break it."

"Yes, young lady, I knew I had to break it. As you like to say, 'it is on your blog'. What is your point?"

"But see, that makes no sense. You have no interest in heroes, you told me so yourself. Why would you be following my blog?"

Gabriel gestured towards Nino.

"Let's say I took a vivid interest in the topic when I found myself trapped in a flying bubble over Paris' roofs."

Nino recoiled.

"Why are you pointing at me?"

"I don't know. Maybe because, not an hour after you came to nag me to allow Adrien to have a birthday party, the 'Bubbler' appeared, and threw my son a birthday party, where he was the DJ", he added, pointing at Nino's headphones. "A party that unfolded in my own courtyard. It's not like I could have heard about it."

The boy crossed his arms.

"I don't buy it. Alya makes a good point."

Mister Agreste stared him down. He had chosen the wrong teenagers to try to scare off, however. Nino glared back. Alya stood by his side and glared too. Gabriel was not easy to impress, and did not fold.

"I think it's super convenient that you went for Alya and Aurore", Nino said. "I think it's super convenient that you know how to fight. I think it's super, super convenient that you have an excuse to read Alya's blog."

"I think your vocabulary, or lack thereof, is appalling. And since my explanations didn't quite fool you, let me be blunt. My son is Chat Noir. That would be why I have been reading the blog, and that would be why I have contacted those of Adrien's 'friends' with magical abilities."

Alya gaped. Nino blanched.

"And, for the record", mister Agreste added, "I have been fencing since age five. I would not call that 'knowing how to fight', but I am not entirely helpless."

###

Adrien ran, and ran, and ran.

He was getting tired. He had been jumping through his pictures and moving between various areas of the city, but Plot Hole could also transport herself across space, and she always found him. She was fast. She was focused. She was not growing tired as fast as he was.

He had sent emails to Ladybug, but he no longer dared to stop to write. He had to keep moving. He still crouched on a roof, panting, and tried to catch his breath.

He wished his costume was not snow white.

A tiny black shape landed next to him, making him jump. Then Plagg reopened his eyes.

"Transform", he said.

" _Plagg!_ "

Adrien had never felt so relieved.

"Transform", the Kwami repeated. "You'll be faster and you won't need to rest."

The teenager stared at him, overwhelmed by relief and… Happiness. The dark anger wrapped around his heart receded a little.

"You came back for me", he said.

"Of course I did. I never meant to go far, just to make you think I was gone. I can't teleport, however, so I lost you for a while. And I was hungry."

"You… I…"

"Transform, boy! And then try not to surrender to Hawk Moth. Actually, don't just try: do not, period."

Adrien nodded, and transformed. An instant later, he was in costume, with his tail, and his stick, and his mask. He nearly felt like himself again, though the anger was not gone. More importantly, he was not tired. He started moving again, along the Seine, to get out of the city. If he could run to a deserted area, he would be able to fight Plot Hole. Keeping her next to the Seine was a tactical choice: as Marinette had proved when she had attacked Plot Hole, ink and water mixed only too well.

A flash of eyes caught his eyes as he ran past the Pont des Invalides. He turned, recognizing that pattern, that hair.

"Chat!" Ladybug yelled. "Chat, I'm here!"

He stumbled and stopped.

"My lady?"

"Come on, they are after you!" she called.

Chat Noir stared at her, frozen - _she_ _'s back, she's back_ \- and then raced to her.

"You can transform again!" he exclaimed, shocked.

He felt himself grin.

She waved to him.

"Yes. Come with me!"

He followed.

###


	18. Chapter 18

_Once again, thank you so much for the reviews and favs!_

* * *

It took ten, maybe fifteen seconds for Ladybug's illusion to falter. By that point, Chat Noir had followed it straight to Plot Hole.

The invisible woman attacked him right at that moment.

He took a blow to the chest and another to the back of the head before he understood what was going on.

 _How could you fall for that?_ He told himself. _You knew about the illusions!_

Then he tried to fight back. He kicked her and got his stick out. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a teenager - the rabbit Akuma - scamper. Adrien focused on Plot Hole.

He had let himself be lured away from the Seine, so he made sure to move back towards the river with every attack, circling Plot Hole so she would have to follow him. It was not as easy as it sounded: her ink traveled fast, and she would dive into it to emerge behind Chat Noir, and to push him in the wrong direction. After failing, over and over again, to get her in sight of the water, he gave up and started running. He jumped more than he raced, figuring the less he touched the ground, the less she would be able to appear next to him.

He arrived at the bridge he had just left and jumped on the closest barge. If he could get on a small, mobile area surrounded by water, he had a chance to push Plot Hole off, if she dared to follow him. She was nowhere in sight.

He was turning around, hesitant, when he took a blow behind the shoulders. It catapulted him into the Seine. He dropped his stick and sank.

###

Mister Agreste had called his chauffeur and offered a drive home to Alya and Nino, and they had refused. They wanted to talk - at least Alya did - and they lived close by. It was not a long walk, even if it was late.

She was still holding Adrien's mother necklace, and looking at it as she made her way past the Grand Paris and towards her home.

"So, you knew Adrien was Chat Noir", she told Nino, who was walking next to her.

"I have known for, like, four hours. He didn't tell me, I figured it out when I saw Chat Noir earlier."

"And you also know who Ladybug is."

"Huh."

Alya took a deep breath.

"Do you think Adrien knows his father knows?"

Mister Agreste had figured it out "easily enough", as he had said. "I couldn't help but notice Adrien's empty bedroom, or the absences from class, or the curious series of events and attacks that always seem to involve someone from your class. And, sure enough, every single time Adrien is unaccounted for, Chat Noir appears in the news. I'll freely admit I'm not the most attentive father, but if the hints could not have become any clearer without Chat Noir slapping me in the face."

"Yeah, seriously, _no way_ ", Nino replied. "Adrien has to get _appointments_ to talk with his father."

"What? Is that a figure of speech?"

"No."

"Ok, wow", Alya said as that sank in. "Wow. Mister Agreste is worse than I thought."

"I told you so! And don't forget he 'recruited' you and Aurore to face Picture Perfect without ever mentioning it could lead to getting Cataclysmed off the face of the earth."

She groaned.

"I know he's a horrible person! We still need to help Adrien!" she said. "And Chat Noir would never do that!"

"Like I would never send people halfway to the moon? Like you'd never take over television to unmask Chloé? Like Alix would never suck the life out of people to repair a stupid watch?"

"Adrien is better than all of us put together. As Chat Noir OR as himself. And I don't think he was corrupted like we were."

"What do you mean?"

"The Miraculous! We all made _deals_. We got powers to do what _we_ wanted, as long as we got Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculous. That's how it works! I've enough footage of the villains to prove it, by now. But if Adrien is Chat Noir, then his Miraculous is that ring on his finger. And he didn't go and give it to Hawk Moth, did he?"

Nino gaped. She crossed her arms. Now, who had "terrible intuition"?

"Either it's not a deal, either it doesn't affect Adrien like it affected us", she added to hammer the nail in. "Probably both. So I'm not afraid of being 'Cataclysmed'."

Her friend stared at her, and ended up nodding.

"You are right", he admitted. "Hawk Moth tried to corrupt Ladybug, and it didn't work at all. They are good people. They are strong."

Alya huffed. She uncrossed her arms, realizing the necklace was still in her hand. She put it on.

"I trust them", she replied, pushing her hair back over her shoulders. "Even without powers. Even with demonic powers."

"So do I", Nino said.

He looked down at the pendant.

"We can go to her. We should go to her. Actually, I'll call her right now. Do you think _he_ cares, at all?" he added as an afterthought, raising a hand to the pendant without quite touching it.

"Mister Agreste? Yes, I do", she replied. Then she saw the skeptical look on her friend's face. "I'm not saying he's not the worst father ever. I mean, all of this could be solved by him just _apologizing_ to his son and, I don't know, trying to act like a human instead of a statue. BUT!"

"But?"

"Whatever you say about my intuition."

"I'm sorry I insulted your intuition!"

"Whatever you say about it, I have eyes. And he gave me this", she added, pointing at the pendant. "It was his wife's. Now, there's _nothing_ left of her in that house. Which I know because I trespassed all over the place in an unrelated incident involving finding a package Marinette had sent Adrien. Anyway, nothing left of Adrien's mom. No pictures, nothing. But mister Agreste kept this. It was in his office, on his desk, close to him. Just. This. So it means something, because it would have been in a jewelry box somewhere, otherwise. Or Adrien would have gotten it. So, it means something to Gabriel. And he gave it to me. So I could help Adrien."

Nino mulled over that.

She breathed in and let him. It was hard to wrap one's mind around the idea that Gabriel Agreste, the borderline abusive, stone-cold father could have any semblance of feelings, but there was some evidence. That was why she had not screamed herself hoarse when faced with the man: there was no point. His son was missing, and he _was_ worried, even if it didn't show. As for his behavior, if seeing with his own eyes that his child was miserable had not been enough to change the way Gabriel acted, no amount of yelling would.

"Alright", Nino grumbled. "I suppose we-"

His phone started buzzing. So did Alya's.

She let him answer, and looked at her own phone. She had received three text messages at once, all of them (be it from Nathanaël, Juleka or Mylène) summing up to "have you seen the news?".

She opened a news channel live feed, and raised the video's volume. The image was shaky, but she recognized a fight between Chat Noir and two different Akumas: that paper and ink woman, and a rabbit boy from the school. The fight didn't last long. The boy knocked Chat Noir down, the woman landed another blow, and they dragged him through a black hole in the ground.

She turned to Nino, horrified.

He had answered a call.

"About halfway between the Grand Paris and our school", he was saying. "Both of us. Where are _you_?"

He waited. He hung up.

"Come on", he said, grabbing her wrist and dragging her after him as he raced down the street. "Ladybug needs us."

###

Tikki was startled out of an uneasy, restless sleep when a pool of black ink spread over Hawk Moth's room floor, with a wet, splashing noise. She jumped in her cage and looked down, waiting to see why Plot Hole was visiting. The Kwami stared, horrified, as the woman and Plot Bunny emerged from the floor, holding Chat Noir.

The hero looked exhausted, and dropped to his knees as soon as Plot Bunny released his hold. Plot Hole frowned, however, and grabbed him tighter.

"Master Hawk Moth will be very glad with our work", she said. "Don't you think so, Bunny?"

The child yawned, tired to the bone.

"Yes, yes, if you say so. As long as he…" - He suppressed another yawn. - "… Gets here soon."

Some of the ever present butterflies turned black and swarmed together, dispersing after a moment to reveal Hawk Moth himself. Both of his servants jumped back.

Tikki moved back in her cage, horrified. She looked from the monster to Chat Noir, who was still on his knees, looking too weak to defend himself. He couldn't have escaped anyway: the room had no doors, and Plot Hole had closed her passageway. You could only access the room through spatial magic, and it was not one of Plagg's abilities.

"Chat Noir", Hawk Moth greeted. "Finally."

And then he frowned and took a long look at the young hero.

"Take his Miraculous", he ordered.

"As you wish, master", Ploth Hole replied, getting down to one knee and pulling the ring off Chat Noir's finger.

He transformed back.

Into _Theo_.

"WHAT?" the woman exclaimed. "That's… You're not…"

She jumped to her feet and turned to Hawk Moth.

"I swear it was _him_ ", she exclaimed, terrified. "It was him! We were following the Akuma inside his phone."

"Oops", Theo said. "My bad."

Plot Bunny was inching away. Plot Hole was looking around, in a panic.

"I swear, just a moment ago…"

"You know what they say", Theo chimed in. "All cats are gray in the dark. I mean, it's an easy mistake."

"Be silent", Hawk Moth snapped.

His eyes traveled from his captive to his two servants, and then back.

"The two of you, go back to that bridge. The _actual_ Chat Noir might still be in the area."

Plot Hole grabbed Plot Bunny by the elbow and dove into the floor with him, not waiting to be asked twice. The ink vanished after them. Hawk Moth was staring at Theo.

"I really didn't expect to see you again, Copycat", he said in a voice that was both too soft and too polite.

Tikki saw the sculptor swallow.

"I, uh, you know I have no recollection of being transformed and under your command. I figured you'd come to collect at some point, though."

Hawk Moth leaned closed and pressed his hand to the young man's chest. He pulled it away, dragging a pink butterfly out. He held it between its fingers until it stopped struggling, then released it. The butterfly joined its peers, any semblance of will purged away.

"I should have", Hawk Moth said.

Theo took a shaky breath.

"I, uh, for what it's worth, I was on my way to a bank robbery, I didn't mean to interfere with your plans, sir?"

Hawk Moth shook his head.

"I'll deal with you later. You might still be useful", he finished, holding a hand up.

More butterflies turned black, and covered him. When they flew away, the villain was gone.

Tikki pressed herself against her cage's bars.

"Are you alright?" she asked Theo.

He blinked, chuckled nervously, and looked at her.

"Iiiii… Am, apparently. Wow. That went well."

"I'm sorry?"

"You are Tikki, aren't you?" he asked, getting his phone out of his pocket. "I didn't think I'd find you that easily!"

###


	19. Chapter 19

Thank you again for all of the reviews :) I'm sorry any worry or heart attack caused!

* * *

Nino kept peeking at Alya as they ran towards Marinette's location. Their classmate was waiting for them two street away from Alya's home, which was close enough to get to her in less than five minutes. Which meant Nino was having difficulties coming up with a warning for Alya: he couldn't find the right words, and was literally running out of time. Well, trotting. He was faster than Alya.

He didn't know how the reveal that Marinette was Ladybug would go. He was worried.

He had two minutes to figure it out.

One minute.

"ALYA!" Marinette called. "Nino!"

She was running towards them, and was much closer to them than the boy had anticipated.

Alya stopped and stumbled.

"Marinette?" she said, not connecting the dots between her best friend and the superhero they were supposed to join.

Marinette threw herself at her and hugged her. Alya hugged back, immediately forgetting about Ladybug, out of concern for her friend.

"Are you alright?" she asked, patting her shoulder.

Marinette took a deep breath, squeezed Alya some more, then she took a step back and turned into Ladybug. She couldn't transform, but she didn't need a costume to become her other self. She just focused, shed her awkwardness away, brushed the shyness off. Her posture changed, her attitude grew defiant.

Alya watched it happen with stunned disbelief.

"Did you tell her?" Marinette ask Nino.

He suspected that, bravado or not, she did not dare looking at her best friend. One look could have answered her question.

He shook his head.

Marinette braced herself and turned to their classmate.

"Alya", she said. "I'm _sorry_ I lied to you."

"It was _your_ history book", the blogger said, her voice empty. "That's why you borrowed mine."

"I had no choice. It was for _everyone_ 's safety."

"And when you were late for that contest, and every time you were late, HOW DID I NOT FIGURE THIS OUT?" Alya exclaimed, raising her hands in irritation. "HOW DID I NOT SEE IT?"

"Nobody could, it was the whole p…"

Alya went from "angry and betrayed" to "herself" in the blink of an eye, as reality chimed in and dissolved the burst of emotion.

"We have a lot work to do", she cut in, grabbing Marinette's shoulder. "Chat Noir was captured."

"What?" the other girl yelled, panicking and reverting to herself for a moment. "Oh no, no, I'm too late. I-"

She collected herself, frowning and taking a slow breath. She pressed her hand on Alya's, keeping it there.

"Chat Noir is going to need the two of you. The three of us. He needs your powers." - Alya shot a suspicious look at Nino. - "We need to find him", Marinette continued, moving away and getting her phone from her pocket. "Where was he captured?"

"From the footage I saw on the news, around the Invalides", the blogger replied.

"Then that's where we are going, maybe Plot Hole left clues. I have an agent patrolling the city. With a little luck, he was in the area. If not, I will need to lure Plot Hole out and get answers out of her. Any idea of the fastest bus to get to the Invalids?"

"63", Nino replied. "We can still catch it from Cluny, I thi-"

"We can ask Mister Agreste", Alya suggested. "His chauffeur could drive us there, and all around the place."

"WHAT?" Marinette exclaimed. "No! It's…"

"He knows who Chat Noir is", her friend said. "He knows who Nino is, he knows I'm Lady Wifi, he figured it out, all of it. He wanted me to talk to 'Picture Perfect'."

Marinette gaped, horrified. Nino could get behind the sentiment.

"I don't like it either", he said.

"It would be a _car_ ", Alya retorted. "We're a little short on means of transportation. It's not like Ladybug has her yoyo, or like you can fly, or like I have Lady Wifi's entire set of powers!"

"Well, I'm still saying getting that guy involved is a bad idea. I'm getting a bad vibe, okay?"

Ladybug raised a hand to shut them up.

"I can get a car", she said, looking down at her phone. "I think."

She called someone labeled as "CC", sucking in a breath. Her volume was way up, so they could hear the tonality, over and over again. Then, someone picked up.

"Copycat, are you still patrolling?" Marinette asked.

"Change of plans", a man's voice answered. "Tell me I didn't drown the boy."

###

Tikki stared at Copycat - well, at his normal self - and gaped.

"You are Tikki, aren't you?" he had asked. "I didn't think I'd find you that easily!"

It left her stunned. It meant the young man was looking for her. He knew her name, which meant maybe - just maybe - he had heard it from Marinette. Or maybe it was all just a big act meant to confuse Tikki. She decided to be careful, and to hide all knowledge of Marinette's real identity.

"You were looking for me?" she asked, studying his face.

"Ladybug contacted me", he replied. "She needed me to help with Chat Noir, who is in trouble. She needed me to help find you, too. Long story short, I had some powers left after the 'Copycat' incident. Theo. You might remember me."

"I do", she said.

It was him. It was him, and he had somehow retained some of Makko's magic, at least up until five minutes before. He wouldn't be able to transform again, not now that Hawk Moth had torn the butterfly out and sent it back to the swarm of insects he ruled over.

The fact that Makko's powers had been at Theo's disposal raised a question, or rather several: "How?", "Why?". The Akuma had left its fetish. It had been purged. The butterfly had flown away, Tikki was certain of it. She had seen it happen, through Ladybug's eyes. It meant the butterfly had returned. Was that a fluke? They were supposed to wait, away from Hawk Moth, waiting for the day Makko would be freed.

 _How many Akumas have you fought since then?_ Tikki wondered. _How much of Makko_ _'_ _s magic have you freed by now? How much would it have taken for her to have a body and a mind outside of herself?_

If Makko had freed even a fragment of her will from Hawk Moth's control… She would have reached out. She would have gotten help from whomever she could, whomever she felt she could trust.

Makko had trust in spades, and she was a gifter. She had always preferred to split her powers between a group, rather than give them all to her Miraculous' holder. It was why the Butterflies - Blue Argus, and Aricia - had been a team. It was also why Aricia had not been as strong as her fellow heroes on the day of her death. It was a risk the young woman and her Kwami had been willing to take. It was the decision - from another point of view, the mistake - that had driven her partner over the edge.

Hawk Moth would not have let Argus forget that, nor Makko. Still… Copycat returning could not be just a coincidence.

Tikki allowed herself to hope.

Meanwhile, Theo scratched his neck. He looked around, frowning, and back at his phone.

"I… That's not good", he said. "My phone can't connect with the GPS network. I can't place us on a map, all I have is the closest cell phone tower."

The Kwami perked up.

"But you can still send those coordinates to Ladybug", she said. "Can't you?"

"I can, but that won't help her much. We could be underground, for all I know. The room has no doors at all?" he asked.

"None. You need to teleport here", Tikki replied. "There is a window, but only Hawk Moth can open it, and I suspect it's magical."

"Have you seen any buildings from it? How high up are we?"

"Above the city, and looking down on it."

Theo frowned.

"Did you see the Eiffel Tower?"

"Yes. Quite far."

"Then we are in one of the skyscrappers, in La Défense."

Tikki frowned.

"Are you sure?"

"That's where the phone puts us, and you just told me which way we are facing", Theo replied. "Hopefully, that can help Ladybug find us, _not that I know what a thirteen years old will be able to do._ "

Tikki did not bother to correct him with a "fifteen", knowing full well the line between childhood and adulthood for humans had vastly moved since her birth.

"Chat Noir might still be able to-"

Theo's phone started vibrating, and he fumbled to pick up.

"Change of plans", he explained. "Tell me I didn't drown the boy."

Tikki didn't hear the answer, but saw the artist frown and stand. He started pacing.

"No. No, he was fighting two people. I wasn't going to be able to fight them both, so I kicked the boy into the Seine and took his place. It was a hard kick, I needed him out of sight, and I didn't see him surface."

Another silence.

"They are looking for him. We were near the Invalides, I… Kid, your Kwami is here", Theo exclaimed. "Red? Dot on the forehead? Head the size of an apple?" - He listened to Marinette for an instant. - "The Défense district. Upper floors, on the side of the Eiffel tower. No, I don't think you can spot us from the outside. The window is closed."

"Circular window", Tikki cut in.

"Circular window", Theo repeated. "What is that screaming? Kid. Wh-"

He was thrown to the floor by the full weight of Marinette's best friend, who had popped out of his phone.

"Ow", Alya moaned. "Ow…"

Theo swore and tried to sit up.

The young girl climbed back to her feet, looking around.

"It _does_ look like an evil overlord lair", she said, picking Theo's phone up. She hushed the frantic screaming from the other side. "I'm okay. So Copycat was that guy who made your statue?"

"Yes", he hissed, trying to snatch his phone back.

"I'll bring them back", Alya told Marinette, jumping away from Theo's hands. "Just let me get Tikki out of her cage."

She gave the phone to the sculptor, and joined the Kwami, whose mind was racing. She could feel the magic inside Alya. It was Makko's definitely. That being said, it was weak, and nowhere near Lady Wifi's level.

"Is that ink?" the girl asked, poking the cage's bars.

"I don't think you can break it", Tikki replied, pushing the bars. "It's magical ink, it can stretch forever."

Alya got a yellow plastic tube with a vividly colored label out of her pocket, removed its bubble wand cork, and emptied a glass worth of soapy water over Tikki and her cage. It dissolved. The Kwami wiped the darkened water from her eyes.

"That works too", she said.

The teenager picked her up, squeezing her against her shirt.

"Let's go", she said, returning to Theo. "Before Hawk Moth returns."

She took the man's hand, and looked at the phone. Nothing happened.

Tikki's heart sank.

"What's happening?" Alya murmured. "I can't get through."

She frowned and wrinkled her nose and focused to the point her lip started shaking.

Theo understood quickly, and took a shaky breath.

"I'm sorry, Theo", Tikki murmured.

Alya looked down, looking like the scared teenage girl she was.

"Why are you apologizing?"

"Because you can't take him with you", Tikki explained, hoping she did not sound as sad and tired as she felt. "You don't have that power."

"But Plot Hole pulled him through her ink!"

"Plot Hole is much more powerful than you are, or even were as Lady Wifi, Alya. And transportation of _others_ is an entirely different branch of magic than self-teleportation, unfortunately."

"No, no, no, you have to be wrong", the girl replied, blood leaving her face. "I can't just go after freeing you. They would turn against Copycat!"

"Can she travel with _you_ , Tikki?" the young man asked.

He sounded composed and unconcerned, as he ought to. He was the adult in the room, and he acted like one, trying to convince the child nothing was wrong. He could fool Alya, but Tikki had lived a great many years. All men were children in her eyes.

She pretended everything would be fine, but it was solely for Alya's benefits.

"She can", she said with a smile. "I'll hurry here with Ladybug."

"Upper floors, circular window, in full view of the Eiffel tower", he added, rolling his eyes. "And don't let the kid take too long. Hawk Moth said he would be back in the morning."

Tikki saw Alya hesitate.

"Ladybug is very fast", the Kwami replied. "And the building will be easy too find."

"Good", Theo replied with a grin. "I'll be waiting. Oh, and I'm not done talking to Ladybug. Mind handing her the phone when you get back to her?"

Alya studied his face, slowly releasing his arm.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" she asked.

"Aside from the swarm of creepy butterflies and the very dark room? I'll be fine", Theo said, shrugging. "All of the villains are out there looking for Chat Noir."

"He's telling the truth", Tikki added, knowing Plot Hole would notice her cage being broken quickly enough.

Alya took a deep breath, held the Kwami closer, and dove into Theo's phone.

###

Marinette's ear was pressed to her phone, trying to listen to whatever was happening in Hawk Moth's lair, when Alya jumped out of it. There was no collision this time - Marinette's reflexes were much better when she was focused on action - but Alya still crashed and rolled on the pavement, arms wrapped around Tikki. Thankfully, it was late enough for the streets to be empty, and no one noticed the girl appearing out of nowhere.

Marinette still yelled in surprise, and ran to her friend, but Nino was by Alya's side in two steps and wrapped his arms around her to help her up.

Tikki flew up.

"Are you alright?" she asked Alya, in the same voice as Marinette and Nino.

"I'm fine. Copycat wants to talk to you", she added, turning to her best friend.

Marinette fumbled for her phone.

"Copycat?" she called. "Are you-"

"Did your friend make it out of the… Did she cross? Is she fine?"

"She is, she is. I'll be co-"

She heard Theo's voice tremble as he replied, for a few syllables, before he could get it under control.

"Please, do me a favor, and go after that Chat Noir kid. I'll be fine, but they are after him."

"I'm not going to just aban-"

Alya understood what was going on and got to her feet, trying to run to Marinette.

Theo had to be expecting that.

"It will be safer for you if I delete your number", he said. "Good luck."

He hung up. Alya grabbed the phone just a second too late.

###


	20. Chapter 20

Once again: thank you all so much for the comments! It means a lot!

* * *

Adrien felt himself leave the ground, lifted up easily by arms as large as trees. It didn't quite register. He was stunned, and dripping with water, and his mouth tasted like sewers. He tried to open his eyes, but he was too drowsy. He let himself be carried away, listening to the sound of splashy footsteps.

That… Wasn't good. He tried to collect his thoughts. He had been kicked into the Seine, he had swallowed water, he…

"I'm not paid nearly enough for this", he heard Nathalie say from a few feet away. "Hurry, before they come back."

That got Adrien to open his eyes. He blinked and looked up, straight into the nostrils of the family's chauffeur. The man grunted, looking to his left, and walked a little faster. Adrien heard a car door open, and the chauffeur leaned down, laying Adrien onto the car seat.

"This is going to _ruin_ the limousine", Nathalie moaned. "Don't you have blankets or a coat or…"

"Nathalie?" the boy murmured.

It did sound like her, down to the empathy-free panic.

"Oh", she said. "Oh. You are awake. Good. We are getting you out of here", she announced, sitting next to him and closing the door.

The chauffeur circled the car and took his place behind the wheel, which Adrien deduced from the way the limo leaned to one side and then back.

The teenager shivered, trying to sit up straight. He was soaked, and he burped something that tasted distinctly of dishwater up.

"What happened?" he muttered. "I was…"

He looked down at his suit, white and gold, and realized he was no longer Chat Noir, just Picture Perfect. He was not _himself_ either, but he was recognizable enough, he supposed.

"Unimportant", Nathalie replied, as the car started moving. "The two creatures chasing you were distracted by another enemy and…"

"Ladybug?"

"I said 'unimportant'", his father's assistant repeated. "What matters now is to get you out of their reach and to safety. Wherever that might be."

Adrien looked outside. They were driving away from the Pont des Invalides, but not towards the mansion. As far as he could tell, they were following the river, but it was on their right, and he recognized some of the buildings they passed.

"Where are we going?"

"We are still figuring it out, but as long as we keep moving, your assailants might find it hard to track you down", she said.

The teenager sat up, horrified, his energy coming back in a surge of adrenaline.

"Stop the car", he exclaimed. "Stop the car, I need to… I was…"

"Calm down", Nathalie ordered. "You are not going anywhere."

"But… I… Plagg…"

He looked down at his hand. His ring was gone.

He blanched.

"No, no, no, where… Nathalie, I had a ring! Did you see it?"

Had he lost it in the Seine? Where was Plagg?

Nathalie reached into her pocket and drew his Miraculous out.

"I took the liberty of confiscating it, 'Chat Noir'. You ran into enough danger for the night. Now we just have to deal with the _other_ costume, and hope for the best."

"What? Nathalie, please, you have to give me that ring back!" Adrien exclaimed, trying to grab the Miraculous. "I have to…"

He hesitated. What could he do? Earlier, Hawk Moth had been speaking in his mind. He had felt the darkness growing, the anger rising. He still felt bubbles of something alien and mean inside his chest, something that was drawing every bit of anger he had out.

He didn't hear Hawk Moth now, but… It was only a question of time.

Nathalie breathed in, face inscrutable.

"Listen. My job is to keep you clothed, healthy, and safe. I intend to do just that."

Adrien clenched his jaw, not quite of his own volition.

"Did my father send you?"

Nathalie pursed her lips and rolled her eyes, but caught herself. Her expression switched back to "coldly bored".

"No. As a matter of fact, your father fired me. However, he seems to have forgotten there is such a thing as a three months' notice. So here we are."

"Fired you? Fired you?" Adrien repeated, stunned. He had always thought his father liked… Well, considered Nathalie an acceptable assistant. " _Why?_ "

She let out a long suffering sigh.

"He figured out you have taken to a life of vigilantism, and he did not take kindly to my not noticing."

"I… I…"

Adrien moved back on his seat, feeling horribly guilty. He had not considered his father could find out. He had not considered it could impact someone else's life. He liked Nathalie - like one could like the one constant presence in one's life, regardless of the absence of warmth, affection, or even attention - and he would miss her.

She pocketed the Miraculous.

He extended his hand again. He had to. Even if he couldn't trust himself, the Miraculous was his responsibility. He had to protect it. He had to protect _Nathalie_ , who would be in terrible danger carrying it, not to mention because she was helping Chat Noir flee.

"Now don't be a child", she snapped. "Let us handle it."

Her tone bit into him. It sounded eerily like Gabriel's permanent criticism, and it twisted Adrien's gut just as much. The pain didn't last. Picture Perfect could wrap rage around it to smother it out. The anger swelled, and memories resurfaced.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked, the corner of his mouth twisting into a smile. "Are you trying to impress my father to get your job back?"

Nathalie heard the edge in his voice, and her eyes went wide. She composed herself.

"No, Adrien. I do this because you shouldn't handle this on your own."

Picture Perfect chuckled. The Akuma could see through it all: the layers of carefully woven lies, the masks, the pretense, the self-preservation. He pulled Chloé's phone out of his pocket. It still worked (the EePhone Max was waterproof, like any device worth two-thousand euros should be).

"Smile", he told Nathalie, pointing the camera at her.

He tapped the screen. There was a flash, and the chauffeur froze, releasing the gas pedal. The car slowed down, swerving slightly, and stopping on a sidewalk.

Nathalie was sitting straight, chin up, shoulders squared. She looked professional, efficient, and qualified. She wasn't. Not really. Actually, she was terrified of showing the slightest fault. The Akuma could see that too, feel the lies, the weaknesses, the anger and the doubts.

Picture Perfect fetched his Miraculous from her pocket and put it back on his finger. Then, he poked Nathalie's forehead.

"You can just say it", he told her. "You can just _say_ that you hate your job. It will _free_ you."

She stared at him.

"Don't do this", she said. "Don't make me. _You_ will regret it."

"Why would I? You are lying to yourself, and everyone. You don't have to pretend."

She was afraid, and she was trying to keep her facade, to hide behind it. He touched her forehead again, and a bit of magic traveled from the phone in his other hand to the tip of his fingers. It was just a little burst of darkness, but it was enough to push past Nathalie's barriers and convince her to talk.

" _Of course, I hate my job!_ " she exclaimed. "I never wanted to be a glorified baby-sitter. I have a MBA from the HEC! I had a _future_ in this company, until Gabriel decided otherwise. This was not my _plan_! I'm not the one who chose to have a child I have no idea what to do with!"

The mask was off, and the venom was out, and she felt better, if only for a moment.

Adrien felt like hell.

She ran her hands on her face, free from the paralyzing spell.

"This. I told you not to do this. You didn't have to hear that!"

She took a deep breath. She sighed.

"People don't just pretend to protect _themselves_ ", she pointed out. "You should know that."

"You should not lie to please others", he replied, hesitant. "I…"

"You didn't have to hear that", she repeated.

He stared at her, breathing in.

"It's alright", he said. "I knew all of that. I knew. Everything."

 _I hate my job._

 _A child Gabriel has no idea what to do with._

"No, you didn't", she replied. "That's not everything, for a start. It's just a few words spoken in anger, and forced out with…" - She gestured at his costume. - "Magic."

He closed his eyes.

"I could _see_ it. All along. The Akuma didn't show me anything _new_."

Nathalie put a hand on his shoulder, giving him a stern look.

"It's playing with your mind and doing the exact same thing to you."

"It's n-"

 _It is. It_ _'s not. It is. It's not. It…_

Rage flooded Adrien. He pulled away, but tried to fight the boiling anger.

 _You are Chat Noir_ , he told himself. _You know the Akuma is changing the way you think. You can_ _'t let it._

There was a temptation to give in, and an urge to take that magic and to force it into Nathalie's mind until she told him the entire truth. Until she confirmed everything he had ever suspected about his father and her. Until he was certain that no one cared about him.

Plagg's words came back to him. "Maybe you fancy yourself the next Argus, thinking you are better off as a monster."

Maybe Plagg was right.

"You don't have to pretend", Picture Perfect murmured, staring down at his hands. "I always knew you didn't like me. I could _see_ it, I'm not blind."

"I _do_ like you. But I'm not your mother. I was never meant to stay in your life. And I neither want nor should be a surrogate."

He looked up, startled. The words were sharp, but he trusted them more than any affectionate protest.

"Do you think my _father_ does? Like me, I mean."

He waited, hopeful, though he knew better.

Nathalie had to think about it. She had to _think_ about it.

His hopes sank.

She leaned forward, putting a clumsy hand on his shoulder. She frowned at her own arm as if it had betrayed her, pursed her lips, then turned to Adrien.

"He does, in his own way. It doesn't mean… It is not…"

She shook her head, unable to put her thoughts into words.

"Some people should recognize they are not cut out to be parents", she explained after a moment. "Not everyone is."

"You are saying I was a mistake", the teenager murmured.

"No. I'm saying… You were wanted, you were, but with your mother gone… I think your father found himself on a path he didn't know how to navigate alone."

Adrien swallowed hard, digging through old memories. Happy ones. Warm ones.

"I've been working for your father for a long while", Nathalie continued. "I was a very young intern when he met her, but I was there. I knew him, and… She had a magic to her. She made people believe they could be anything. And your father believed it. She had endless supplies of faith, and never let him give up on himself. The problem with that is… It was her goodness that shone through. She knew the way, and she guided him along… And then she was gone. And he closed up so totally that I think he would have put a continent of distance between everything and himself, if it had been possible."

"He did", Adrien pointed out, idly remembering his father vanishing to Japan, to Australia, to the US, month after month.

"I suppose he did."

"He gave up. On himself."

Nathalie hesitated. She swallowed. But she didn't lie when she answered. The Akuma, monster that it was, would have picked up on that.

"I don't know", she said. "Sometimes, it takes a long time to people to deal with whatever is troubling them."

"My mom used to say…"

Adrien had to focus on the memories. He had heard the words so often, but it had been so long ago, and that darkness inside him wanted the memories buried and gone.

"She used to say you could do anything as long as you believed in yourself."

"Words immediately followed by scratched knees, and by your father suggesting a ten steps plan to your goal, if I remember well."

Adrien stared.

He had nearly forgotten. His mother was present in all of his childhood memories, but Gabriel… Gabriel would be somewhere in the room, drawing or working, always so quiet and busy. But he would stop, and write down those plans - illustrated lists with elegant words - on pristine sheets of paper. It was so easy to remember the pages, and yet Gabriel's image seemed to erase itself. Adrien felt like he was missing something crucial.

Something bumped against the car's door, and the boy nearly jumped out of his skin. But it was only Plagg, who wheezed and dropped onto Adrien's knees.

He was carrying a piece of camembert.

"Sorry to interrupt the very sad discussion full of sad human feelings, but you have been talking for a long time and Plot Hole has not found you yet. So where is she?"

###


	21. Chapter 21

Marinette stared at her phone.

She tried to call Theo again, but she was sent straight to voicemail. Alya groaned and kicked a can, running her hand through her hair.

"I should have known. _I should have known_ ", she ranted. "Why did I believe him? I should have stayed with him."

She breathed in, and remembered that Marinette had tried to stop her from travelling to Hawk Moth's lair to begin with.

"I should have _listened_ ", she added. "I didn't know I wouldn't be able to take him with me."

Marinette closed her eyes and suppressed her panic. She felt tears well up between her eyelashes. Sometimes, you had to take decisions where you lost either way. Sometimes, the cards you were dealt were just bad, and you had to pick the lesser evil.

"We need to get Chat Noir", Tikki said. "We need to find _Plagg_. I don't know what he did, but Hawk Moth was furious."

Marinette weighed her options. She could rescue Chat Noir, wherever he was, but it would mean leaving Theo at Hawk Moth's mercy. She could look for Theo, but how long could Chat Noir resist that voice in his head?

She opened her eyes.

That was a stupid question.

"Are you saying we should abandon Copycat?" Alya exclaimed. "Then _I'll_ get him. A circular window in the Défense, facing the Eiffel Tower. I'll find it!"

"I'm abandoning _no one_ ", Marinette exclaimed. "I'm getting them both."

She grabbed Tikki and started running towards the bakery. She had left her Miraculous home, and she would need it.

Nino and Alya raced after them.

"You can't get them _both_ ", the boy said. "There is no time. We can find Copycat!"

"I _can_ and I _will_ get them both", Marinette snapped. "Theo first, because he is a civilian, and I asked for his help, and I am _not_ leaving him behind." - Theo himself obviously didn't agree with that point of view, but she was not about to give up on him. - "And then Chat, because I trust him to handle himself."

How long could he resist Hawk Moth's voice in his head? _Forever._ Chat Noir was much stronger than he gave himself credit for. Maybe he was scared, and maybe that Akuma was playing tricks on his mind, but this wasn't just a dark spell that could twist a person until it was lifted. That Akuma was a spirit that pitted its anger and malevolence against Adrien's will and endless kindness. It was outmatched.

"Marinette!" Alya yelled, grabbing her wrist and stopping her dead in her tracks.

Her friend turned, panting.

"You are not _alone_ ", the blogger said. "We are going to _help_. Now, tell us how."

Nino took a step forward, putting one hand on Marinette's shoulder and squeezing Alya's hand with the other.

They would never change their minds, the young hero realized. And she did not want them to. She could trust them. Maybe there was very little they could do, but they were in this together.

"Alright. Alright. My Miraculous is hidden at home", she explained, pulling Alya towards the end of the street. "I'll get it, and I'll go straight to the Défense. The two of you… You'll need to find Chat Noir - Adrien - and make sure he stays safe until I can get to him. I'll give you his email."

"I'll need my bubble thing", Nino told Alya as they ran. "And, Marinette, what are we up against?"

The plastic tube changed hands, and the boy shook it. It was empty.

"We are up against at least two evilized people and..."

"Plot Hole and Plot Bunny", Tikki cut in. "She is very strong, and he is a powerful illusionist. I believe this was meant to be Hawk Moth's endgame. He gave them more magic than he usually does. They even have special attacks, which you should be extremely wary of. But those spells come from Hawk Moth's Kwami, and using that magic will exhaust them, just like Lucky Charm does Ladybug."

"Their… Wait, their Kwami?" Nino asked. "You mean, like you and the flying cat? I thought you were on the heroes' side."

Marinette was slowing down, panting. Paris' streets were not as long in her memories, and she was exhausted. She saw Tikki hesitate. The Kwami looked down, face twisted in sadness.

"Usually", she said. "One of us has been captured by Hawk Moth, however. It's… A long story."

She peeked at Marinette, who realized Tikki had never shared Argus' story with her. The teenager's week had been so long that she felt like she had known about it forever, even though Plagg's revelation were still recent.

"One of the previous heroes was corrupted by an Akuma", she told her friends so Tikki would not have to. "That's what Hawk Moth is. The oldest, the strongest. He moved from host to host since Ancient Egypt."

She was still trotting. It was the fastest pace she could manage.

"Previous heroes?" Alya asked, frowning.

"Yes. They worked as a team, and… The woman died in battle, and Hawk Moth used that grief to get into her partner's mind."

"Aricia and Argus?" Nino asked.

Both Tikki and Marinette turned to him, startled.

"It's on Alya's blog", he said. "Their names. And pictures."

"What?" the young heroine exclaimed.

Where was that link? She was sure she had seen every corner of the blog. Finding that page could have come in handy earlier.

"She _died_?" Alya asked, dejected. "People thought they retired."

Her disappointment turned to worry as she looked to Marinette, and full understanding of the risks Ladybug took dawned. Marinette did not know what to say, so she grabbed Alya's hand and squeezed it. Alya squeezed back, putting her other hand over Marinette's and biting her lower lip. Then her eyes went wide and she turned to Tikki.

"You are a ladybug!" she exclaimed.

Tikki blinked.

"I mean, you are Ladybug's ladybug, and Chat Noir has a cat, so Aricia's Kwami would be a butterfly?"

"Yes", the sprite replied in a heartbroken whisper. "She's Makko. She was inside Argus' Miraculous when he was possessed, and she has been a prisoner since then. It is her magic Hawk Moth is using to transform people."

Alya raised a finger, looked around, and dragged Marinette towards the bakery, which was finally in sight. Marinette looked up at the windows, saw no lights, and hushed everyone. She fumbled for her keys and opened the door as quietly as possible.

"Let's try not to wake my parents", she murmured.

They walked in. Alya closed the door and transformed into Miss Wifi.

"This would be Makko's powers, then?" she murmured.

Tikki brightened, flying up and twirling around Alya in wonder.

"Yes", she replied after a moment, looking thrilled.

Marinette tiptoed to the oven. It was still lukewarm, having been on most of the day. She opened it, and reached inside for her Miraculous. She found the earrings were she had left them, pushed in a crease above the door, inside the oven. They had spent twenty hours a day getting roasted, looked perfectly fine, and smelled of bread. She put them on and returned to Tikki and the others.

"So, lemme get this straight", Nino told the Kwami. "We're, like, getting powers from that Makko, even if she's under Hawk Moth's control?"

"She's _reaching out_!" Tikki replied, beaming. "She can divide her magic, and it's always a little part of her mind. I think we might have released enough for her to start fighting back. She probably picked you because you were close to Ladybug."

Marinette wrote down Chat Noir's email on a sheet of "TS" stationery, and handed it to Alya. She would have loved to hear more, but explanations would have to wait.

"I'm going for Theo", she said. "Text me if you find Chat Noir."

Alya and Tikki gave her grim nods, while Nino hardened, looking around.

"Water and dish-soap?" he asked.

Marinette pointed to the relevant door, and transformed.

###

"Why", Alya told Adrien, "why, why, why, why are you calling me using CHLOÉ's phone?"

The boy fidgeted on his perch atop a golden horse statue. He had left Nathalie and their (unfrozen) chauffeur not ten minutes before, set on finding Marinette and figure a way to sort the mess they were in, from the Akuma thing to Ladybug's missing Kwami, and including the "Hawk Moth talking in his head" situation. The very precious (and waterproof, and apparently beatingproof) Eephone max had started buzzing before he could find a quiet spot to transform into Chat Noir.

He had gotten a text from Chloé (who wanted to know if Akuma-infections of electronics voided the warranty), and several emails on his Chat Noir email. The one only Ladybug was meant to know about. One was from Nino ("Call me, dude"), another from Ladybug ("Got Tikki back, have to rescue someone, sending you help") and the last had been from Alya. It had actually included entire sentences and everything.

Namely, it had said: "Ladybug wants 'Miss Wifi' to join you. She is busy with a problem with another ally. Please contact me".

Adrien had called. He was aware that Alya had powers (and faintly remembered fighting her and Stormy Weather), but the email still confused him more than it reassured him. He also needed to hear a friendly voice.

"It's, ah, I kind of _stole_ it", he replied. "It's a bit possessed. It's a long story. I think I voided Chloé's warranty. I'm rambling. I'm rambling, aren't I?"

"Turn the phone away from your face!"

"She's not joking!" Nino's voice added in the background.

"Alright?" Adrien replied, turning the phone away from his face, belatedly realizing what he had just done. "DON'T!"

Unfortunately, Alya didn't hear his warning and he watched her soar out of the phone's screen, and into the empty air that separated the very high horse statue from the ground. He fumbled with the smartphone and managed to take a picture right before she crashed. It didn't work. He closed his eyes and listened to the impact.

"Ooooow", Alya moaned. "Every. Stupid. Time."

Plagg, who was resting on the horse's head and eating his cheese, sighed.

"Humans", he commented. "Can't land on their feet, ever."

Adrien jumped down.

"Are you alright?" he asked, extending his hand.

Alya looked up, gasped, and crawled away. Which was probably a sensible reaction to finding oneself in close vicinity with Picture Perfect. He sighed.

"I'm… Me", he said, crouching. "I mean, mostly. I have the Akuma under control."

"Ladybug thought you would", his classmate replied. "She said she trusts you."

Adrien's heart melted. He promptly hid that behind a cheeky grin.

"Of course she does. I'm purrfectly able to handle myself."

Alya squinted.

"Okay, it's you. It's really you."

She didn't look pleased, but it was probably because of the pun. Not one of his best.

He smiled, a little less like Chat Noir and a little more like… Someone who wasn't quite Adrien Agreste, model and perfect student. He needed to get rid of some of his personas. That identity thing was getting confusing.

"Yes. You said Ladybug was busy with another ally? What's happening?"

"She can transform again!" Alya announced. "Copycat got her Kwami. But… Hawk Moth got Copycat."

He blanched. Nathalie's "the two creatures chasing you were distracted by another enemy" suddenly made sense.

"He got captured instead of me?"

"He… Sort of", Alya replied.

"Do you know where he is? Where was Ladybug going?"

"The Défense. We don't know more, but it looks like he's held in one of the towers, in Hawk Moth's lair."

Adrien jumped to his feet.

"Plagg!"

"What now? I'm not done eating."

"Then hurry! We are joining Ladybug."

Alya stood, taking her phone out and dialing.

"Nino, he's okay. We're going to the Défense", she said. "Where can we meet?"

Plagg stuffed the rest of his cheese in his mouth and swallowed it.

"Not a second too late", Adrien murmured, raising his hand. "Plagg, transform me!"

The Kwami was sucked into his ring and, a moment later, Chat Noir turned to a gaping Alya, who was holding her phone at the level of her shoulder.

"Okay, it's you, it's _really_ you", she said, grinning.

He bowed.

"At your service, Miss."

She snorted.

"Nino can join us at the Jules Verne bus stop", she told him. "I think we-"

Her phone started ringing. She picked up.

"Yes, what did-"

She paled, listened to her interlocutor, and vanished into her screen. Chat Noir grabbed her phone and pressed it to his ear.

"Alya?" he called.

"Hush, hush", a little girl's voice replied. "The butterflies are looking for us!"

###

Ladybug landed on the highest roof facing the Défense district, and stared at the skyscrapers, from the rectangular buildings covered in tiny darkened windows to the brightly lit bluish walls of the Tour First. How many days had it been since Feathertail had thrown her from that tower? She couldn't remember.

There were no circular windows that she could see. Just squares, endless squares and rectangles everywhere. She had climbed up every facade - the Tour First, the EDF tower, Gabriel HC's, Total's and Areva's and Kid Tv's, and every smaller building in the area - and and found nothing.

She transformed back.

"Do you have any idea of where that window could have been?" she asked Tikki. "There's nothing."

The only "circular" shapes she saw were printed on billboards, or painted on windows, like the enormous "G" logo of the Gabriel brand (it was three floors high, just like the printed illustration for Gabriel's modeling company, which depicted Adrien's profile and a camera and would probably be scraped off very quickly considering the "Picture Perfect" incident.)

Tikki flew up and looked back at the Eiffel tower, then turned to the Défense towers again.

"It would be closed now", she told Marinette. "Hawk Moth only opened it when he wanted to send Akumas out."

"What did you see, then?"

"Not much. The light from outside was very bright, and I was away from the window."

Marinette frowned and inspected each building again, from the left.

"Could it be another tower, closer to the center of the city? Like the Saint-Jacques tower?"

"I don't think so."

The teenager studied the last building.

"About Makko", she said.

"Plagg told you everything?" Tikki asked. "I'm so sorry I did not tell you. I was waiting for the right moment, and…"

"It's alright. I understand. It's… Plagg clearly didn't want to talk about it at all. He kind of brushed over everything."

Nothing, square windows, again. She moved to the previous tower.

"Plagg always does", Tikki quietly commented. "We should have told the two of you. We didn't want to scare you."

Marinette thought about what had happened to the previous Miraculous holders, from Aricia's fate in battle to the way Hawk Moth had gone after Zetta's chosen, Clover.

"I can understand that… With Aricia and Clover dying, I mean, it _is_ scary."

Tikki turned to Marinette, startled.

"Clover is alive", she said.

The teenager whirled to her.

"What? But Plagg said…"

"Zetta got Clover's entire family out just in time. They got new identities and lost their memories of the Miraculous, but they survived."

Marinette nearly felt relieved, but Tikki's distraught expression left no doubt on the darkness of the story, regardless of Clover's escape.

"It's not _Clover_ who died", the Kwami finished.

The girl frowned.

"But why would Plagg…"

Understanding dawned. Plagg wouldn't have named Hawk Moth's actual victim in front of Adrien. He didn't want the newest Chat Noir afraid.

"We'll free Makko", she said, pushing _that_ problem out of her mind and turning back to the buildings.

Theo first. Questions later.

She saw the window instantly. It was a bit like looking for your keys, and seZetta'arching through an entire room for hours in vain, only to discover them on the door as soon as you stopped looking. It was blatant, and right in front of her eyes. It just wasn't a _window_.

Her legs went weak.

"Oh no, no, no", she whispered. "No, that's just…"

Impossible.

And horribly wrong.

###


	22. Chapter 22

_I haven't gotten around to replying to the comments (and it's 1AM and I need to wake up for work tomorrow), but a big THANK YOU to everyone :)_

* * *

Sleeping was not easy when you wanted to strangle someone, really. Alix had tried for half an hour, give or take, before jumping out of bed and turning her laptop on.

Several separate issues were keeping her awake: her wanting to shake Alya for being so nice and pleasant with Gabriel Agreste (who was fishier than a can of tuna and a rotten bastard on top of that), her wanting to shake Alya for jumping out of the car and going back to the same Gabriel Agreste (presumably to be less nice and pleasant), and her wanting to shake Alya for agreeing to let the man take part in "helping" Adrien.

Alix thought mister Agreste was Bad News. He gave her the heebie-jeebies.

Well, Alya had agreed, and they'd have to work with that piece of garbage, who probably planned to yell on Adrien about destroying the family legacy by turning into an Akuma. Or something.

Alix could as well get prepared for the next day.

She opened the Ladybug blog and started browsing every page related to the Akumas and their weaknesses, until the new comments caught her eye.

"Why haven't you posted about Chat Noir?"

"Any1 know more about CN? Why isnt LB helpin?"

"Chat Noir was captured, did you see?" another comment said, linking to a live news feed.

Alix opened the link and immediately saw the headline in the sidebar, next to the loading video: "Breaking news: hero of Paris captured". She nearly clicked it, but the video started playing. It showed Nadia Chamade, on the scene of a new Akuma attack.

Black butterflies were flying in a swarm over the roofs of a street Alix recognized, because it was the one Alya lived on. The creatures were flying into a building - and it was Alya's - through the windows of the second floor - also Alya's - and no one could get near the place.

Alix slammed her laptop shut, put her gloves on and raced out of her room. She was halfway down the street, on her rollers, when she called Aurore.

"There's an attack on Alya's home!" she told the blond as soon as she picked up.

"I saw, I'm flying there right now. Did you hear, about Chat Noir?"

"Yes! What the hell happened?"

"He fought those two Akumas and lost. And now they are going after Alya. We need to help."

"I thought you didn't want to be a superhero?"

"Well, 'Sunny Weather' _is_ trending."

Alix turned a corner and then sped along the street. She was getting closer to Alya's. There was a bit of a crowd - police cars and news vans and all of their passengers - but she made her way through it quickly enough.

"Where do you think you are GOING?" a cop yelled, trying to snatch her arm.

It was Sabrina's dad. Alix evaded him, rolling backwards to Alya's building entrance.

"This is my friend's place!" she yelled, opening the front door and slipping inside.

She slammed the door shut in the policeman's face, and sped to the elevator. Its doors thankfully opened as soon as she pressed the "up" button. They also closed fast enough to stop Sabrina's father before he could catch up. Alix waved to him, then breathed in as the elevator started moving.

 _Transform,_ she told herself. _Transform, transform, transform._

It didn't work. She had no idea how Alya and Aurore did it.

Well, she could still punch and kick.

She removed her rollers.

###

"Stay hidden", Alya whispered to her sisters, who were huddled under their parents' bed. "Not a noise."

They all nodded, terrified. The oldest - who was still, for all intents and purposes, a _baby_ \- was holding their mother's smartphone to her ear, and listening to Chat Noir. She was the one who had called Alya to tell her about the butterflies and the masked man in a suit. They were listening to their father screaming at Hawk Moth, wincing every other syllable.

They were all so young.

Hiding under the bed would not help them, Alya knew that. It was the first place the intruders would check. By running into the bedroom, instead of out of the apartment, the girls had trapped themselves. They would need to make their way past Hawk Moth to escape. That, or Hawk Moth would need to be lured away.

Alya asked for the smartphone, then transformed and ran into the living room.

She assessed the situation. Her mother was caged in ink. While Plot Hole was nowhere to be seen, it didn't mean she was not present. Alya's father was standing between her mother and Hawk Moth. Akumas covered the room, coating the walls in a glowing layer of dark wings.

"There she is", Hawk Moth drawled. "'Miss' Wifi, significantly downgra-"

Alya swiped her phone and fired a pink pause icon straight into his chest. It didn't pause him, but the impact pushed him back a little. It was the surprise that really took him aback, however. He snarled. Alya attacked again.

She couldn't keep it up forever, she knew that. Her energy was drained with every shot she took. But she had to do _something._

"You think you can take me down by throwing my own magic at me?" he laughed, shielding himself with butterflies.

"Watch me try", she retorted, diving into her phone.

Using her "icons" tired her, but traveling across an entire city through the cell network barely winded her. She could use that to her advantage.

She had excellent reception that covered the whole block, but still reappeared next to Hawk Moth, with the momentum she had come to associate with her teleportation landings. She crashed into the villain with her full weight and the velocity of a cannon ball. They both rolled to the floor, and Alya immediately moved back to dive into the modem again.

She exited one floor down, from the phone a neighbor had abandoned mid-conversation, and looked around. She didn't have much time. She raced out of the apartment and punched the fire alarm. It triggered the sprinklers in the stairs and corridors, which meant Plot Hole would have a hard time ambushing anyone on their way out. That was _one_ good thing. Now, in order to free her mother, she just needed to activate the fire protection system inside her family's apartment, which would involve tricking the smoke detectors. That wouldn't be as easy.

She didn't have enough time, anyway. She went back to the phone and tried to reappear in her living room, but there was no exit point: both the modem and smartphone had been destroyed. She grabbed her neighbor's Eephone and raced upstairs. She arrived in front of her door just in time to see Alix, in socks, get out of the elevator.

"Are you okay?" the girl asked, running to Alya.

"My parents and my sisters are trapped with Hawk Moth", she replied in a whisper. "I don't know what to do."

"Sunny Weather is on her way, we can distract him until she arrives."

"She-"

They heard a scream from the inside of the apartment. Alya, recognizing her mother's voice, started moving towards the door. Alix was much faster, and just barged in without a moment's pause. Her classmate ran in after her.

They found her father covered in Akumas, from head to toe. He was trying to chase them off, slapping at them and scratching his skin, but there were too many of them. The more he brushed off, the more swarmed to him. Alya saw one sink into his wedding ring, and recognized the telltale butterfly outline appearing over his face.

"Sorry, dad", she murmured, pausing him.

She knew the deal Hawk Moth had been about to offer: help me and protect your family. It was blatant. It would have worked, too. But paralyzed people could not make deals with the devil.

Hawk Moth turned to her and Alix, taking a disdainful look at Miss Wifi's soaked suit and to her friends' socks.

"Free them", Alya yelled. "This is about the magic, isn't it?"

"This is about you learning what it means to interfere with my plans, child. This is about you and Copycat thinking you could _rebel._ This is about Ladybug learning about l-"

"Oh, shut _up_ ", Alix cut in, grabbing a vase and throwing it at him.

It hit the barrier of fluttering butterflies and exploded. Several of the Akuma fell, wings broken, and crawled on the floor until they disappeared.

Hawk Moth laughed.

"And you, Alix", he said in a sickeningly sweet voice. "So much anger, and yet so little power."

"Alya. Get your sisters out", the skater said. "Now."

The man snorted.

"Because you imagine I will let her?" he asked. "You think you can _fight_ me, brat?"

Alix stared him down.

"Yeah", she replied. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure I can."

She took her gloves off.

###

Chloé slept like she lived: without concern for the rest of the world, covered in cosmetics, and in overly pricey clothes.

Picture Perfect jumped out of the life-framed poster of Adrien still hanging on her bedroom wall. The Grand Paris was close to Alya's home, and teleportation had been the obvious choice.

He landed on Chloé's bed, nearly giving her a heart attack. There was some yelling, some punching, and some pillow-throwing. Then, she recognized him.

"You didn't reply to my email!" she exclaimed. "What about my warranty?"

"I, err. I need to look that up. But I'll pay you back!" Adrien promised, running to the window. "Have to go!"

###

There had been no mistaking the look of fear on Hawk Moth's face when Alix had removed her gloves. Even with that mask, you could see he was afraid. He had taken a step back, and Alix had grinned, taking two steps forward.

"Look who's a chicken", she had railed, poking the air. "Alya! Go!"

There had been that split second of hesitation, where Alya had looked at her parents and hesitated, and had thought she could not abandon them, nor Alix, absolutely not. But… Her sisters needed her, so she had raced to her parents' bedroom and gotten the kids out. She had ushered them to the apartment's exit, without giving them the time to look at their mother in her cage, nor at their frozen father. Alya had peeked at Alix, who was fighting an Hawk Moth set on not touching her. He could fight. He dodged effortlessly, and his cane allowed him to land some blows on Alix, even if he stayed out of her reach.

The blogger had not watched them for long. She had pushed her sisters out and led them down the building's staircase, where the fire sprinklers were still spraying. They had trotted down slippery steps, with Alya carrying her younger sister, and made their way to the street.

As soon as they got out, Alya pushed the girls towards the cops, looking up at the lit windows of her family's flat just in time to see Plot Hole throw Alix out.

She swiped her phone and froze Alix mid-fall. Her classmate kept floating, feet above her head, mouth open in a silent scream. Alya fell to her knees, exhausted. She was running out of magic.

A pool of ink appeared in front of her, and Plot Hole jumped out of it.

"What a pesky little wretch you are", the woman said. "Attempting to hinder impeccably laid plans. You worthless, incompetent, inadequate, pathetic excuse for a-"

Chat Noir landed on her face with both feet.

"I had an _inkling_ I'd find you here", he commented after a salto, as Plot Hole fell to the ground. "It's the bad metaphors. My cat-sense was tingling."

Alya grinned, both amused and relieved. Then Aurore called her name from above. She was flying next to Alix, and holding the pink-haired girl by the wrists.

"I have her!"

Alya nodded and freed her classmate. She watched Sunny Weather carry her to safety.

Plot Hole jumped to her feet and threw a ball of ink at Chat Noir, who dodged and rolled.

He would be busy.

"I need to get my parents", Alya announced, standing up and diving into a cop's phone. A quick trip to the third floor later, she was racing down the stairs and barging into her apartment again.

Hawk Moth was gone, as far as she could see. Most of the butterflies had vanished. Her father was no longer covered in them. She lifted the paralysis. Her mother was still in that cage.

"Where did he go?" Alya asked, filling a bucket with water so she could dissolve the bars.

"He ran away from your friend", her mother explained. "She touched him, and he went… Transparent."

"But then that woman came back", her father added, running to the window as he remembered about Alix.

"Alix is fine", Alya exclaimed. "Sunny Weather got her. We need to GO."

She followed them out of the apartment, and down the stairs, just a step behind them. They turned a corner, and Hawk Moth grabbed her from behind, pressing a hand against her mouth. She didn't make a noise, so her parents would not turn back and attempt to fight him. They would notice she wasn't following them soon enough, but there was a chance they would only do so near someone they could send to help her.

Hawk Moth dragged her to the closest landing, pushing her against the wall and pressing his cane under her throat as if it was a blade.

"This was entertaining, but no longer, _Lady Wifi_ ", he whispered.

He raised his free hand, coated in dark magic, and touched her forehead with the tip of his finger. The magic sank into her, clawing its way in, reaching around for something. As it progressed, she felt angrier and angrier, and meaner too. She kicked him, which hurt her more than it did him, and tried to push him away. He barely moved when she shoved him. He didn't move at all when she stomped on his foot and kicked him again. She grabbed his wrist with both hands, and attempted to move his gloved fingers away from her forehead.

The darkness was spreading.

"I'm not going to fall for that again!" she yelled, trying to will the magic away. The wifi symbol on her chest flickered slightly, with a pinkish glow. "You're not getting into my head this time, dude. I'm not you."

She was not going to turn against her friends again. Not without a fight.

"Don't speak like you know who I am", he retorted, his tone mocking .

"Oh, but I know who you are", Alya exclaimed, ready to throw Argus' name into his face, and Aricia's, and everything else she knew.

She froze.

Sometimes, you knew things without noticing it. You had all the information, and yet could not assemble the pieces. A hint, a clue, a lie, a rumor, some facts and some old stories, all of them connected, but not at first sight.

If you thought about it, it was blatant. But Alya had been busy, and running in every direction for days. She had not had the time to think at all.

"I know who you are", she repeated, softly, letting go of her transformation.

Miss Wifi's costume faded.

Hints and lies. In retrospect, she could hear the bitterness in a rumor of retired heroes "having children and living happily ever after". Butterflies and magic, and normal people realizing they could accomplish the extraordinary.

She pulled the necklace Gabriel Agreste had given her out of her collar. It had never been meant to distract _Adrien_.

Hawk Moth looked down at it and started trembling, hand shaking in front of Alya. His cane nearly fell out of his hands.

"Run", he said. " _Run._ "

She did.

###


	23. Chapter 23

Marinette knew next to nothing about Hawk Moth's past. Marinette knew next to nothing about the previous heroes, actually. After that fight with Pharaoh, when she had discovered that Ladybug had been around for millennia, she had asked Tikki about the Ladybugs of old, from Ancient Egypt to Victorian England, from the Roman Empire to the modern era. She had never thought of questioning her Kwami about the Ladybug that had immediately preceded her, let alone said predecessor's fellow heroes.

Plagg's explanations about them had been as vague as they had been had been distressing. Adrien and Marinette had asked him for the reasons to keep their identities a secret, he had given them the shortest of cautionary tales. He had barely given names, and no details whatsoever. "It's simple enough", he had said, and he had kept the story simple alright. "A few years ago", another Kwami had given her Miraculous to two heroes instead of one. "Aricia and Argus", instead of just one Butterfly. And - "after a few years" - the woman had "fallen in battle". And Argus had been "angry", and had opened his mind to an Akuma. To Hawk Moth. And he had known who some of the other heroes were, and he had tracked them down as civilians. And he had "killed Clover", except that part was not true.

Plagg had wanted them them afraid for their families, afraid of becoming as dangerous as Argus, afraid of what they could do to each other. He had made sure they wouldn't disclose their real identities, while revealing no specifics whatsoever, and throwing in a few lies.

Marinette, still standing on that roof facing the Défense, pointed at the "circular window" she had just spotted.

Tikki turned to look at it and froze.

"Oh, Plagg, what have you done?" she whispered as she realized what building she was looking at.

"Do you think he _knew_?" Marinette asked.

She didn't need to ask the full question: had he known who Argus was, who Hawk Moth was, when picking his newest Chat Noir? Had he done that on purpose?

Tikki, horrified, just stared at Gabriel Agreste's company building.

"Transform me", the teenager exclaimed.

She could not gape all night long. She had to find Theo, and then she had to find Chat Noir.

A moment later, as Ladybug, using her yoyo as a rope, she was climbing the Gabriel HC's tower to get to the entrance to Hawk Moth's lair. She had passed right next to the window three times that evening, and missed it, but she had excuses. For a start, it was not a _window_. Then, when in presence of a picture of Adrien Agreste, Marinette Dupain-Cheng tended to look at Adrien Agreste and nothing else. She had paid too much attention to the gigantic print of her friend's profile that covered three floors of the tower. The house sized camera picture right next to the portrait, she had barely noticed.

The window had been installed in the lens of the camera, replacing what should have been glass with a diaphragm shutter. The shutter had been painted to look like part of the camera picture, like a real lens with each reflection drawn on. From afar, you couldn't see it was set _into_ the billboard, and not just printed on. You couldn't distinguish the mobile parts. Ladybug traced them with her fingers, following eight curved lines that joined in the middle of the "lens".

She had hoped to be wrong.

The blades parted a little when she slipped her hand between them and tried to pull.

She had _really_ hoped to be wrong. She had not wanted to find a secret lair in Chat Noir's father building. She had not wanted to find proof that her partner was the son of their worst enemy.

She would have to tell him, and it would destroy him.

"Think of Theo", she murmured, grabbing her yoyo's string with both hands.

She shoved both feet between the shutter's blades and pushed them apart, uncovering a glass window and the empty room behind it. She held on to the string, jumped back, and crashed through the window. She found herself in a dome shaped room, so dark she could barely see farther than arm's length. She pulled her yoyo to her and opened it, using the mirror screen as a an improvised torchlight.

She spotted a dark shape huddled against a wall. A man's shape. She ran to it, kneeling, and recognized Theo. He was lying on the floor, still as a corpse, eyes closed. She took his shoulder and shook him. He did not move.

"Theo, Theo, wake up!" she begged, shaking him again, more forcefully.

He didn't react. Her pulse went frantic. She checked _his_ , and couldn't find it. He was not breathing either.

" _Theo_ ", she called again, as if it could make any difference. "Theo!"

He was gone. She was too late.

She took a deep breath and moved back, her heart thumping.

His phone - the one Alya had traveled through, the one he had turned off after Tikki had been freed - was lying on the floor, the screen shattered. Ladybug picked it up and stared at it.

Maybe if she had spend less time missing the trompe-l'oeil… Maybe if she had not stared at each building like an idiot while utterly failing to notice the secret passage… Maybe if she had not kept her Miraculous hidden at home… If she had kept them on her…

A black butterfly landed on the phone.

###

Chat Noir prayed for rain. He could have used some rain. Invisible enemies were annoying. Scratch that: they were aggravating. Plot Hole did not need the added effect of the invisibility to be insufferable, either. Her vocabulary did the job just fine.

The taunting and the mockery and the _adverbs, so many adverbs_ were wearing him down. That and the constant hail of ink balls, coming from every direction.

He had landed a few good blows, but he refused to use Cataclysm with Hawk Moth so close - he couldn't transform back into Adrien - and he had not managed to force Plot Hole to use _her_ special spell, nor to flee. He couldn't break _ink_ , which meant freeing her of her Akuma was going to be tricky.

He had tried to lure her towards the Seine. No such luck. She was not going to get near water, be it a river's or a tap's.

A ball of ink smacked him in the face and sent him flying. He crashed into a police car, jumped to his feet, and ran away from the cops. They were a lot more squishy than he was, and a lot less bulletproof. He climbed to the closest roofs. Plot Hole kept attacking.

"Just give up, Chat Noir!" she yelled from the street. "You defeat is as inevitable as it is ineluctable. I will triumph over you, and bring your Miraculous to my master before you can-"

Sunny Weather landed behind her and whacked her over the head with her umbrella.

That was going to get her killed, but watching that still felt very satisfying to Adrien. He pounced before Plot Hole could strike back, landing on her with his full weight. She sank into the ground, again, nearly managing to pull him under.

"Not so fast", Aurore exclaimed, grabbing him by the tail and flying up. "It's nice to see you. I didn't know you had escaped."

"It's a long story", Chat Noir replied, with a pang of guilt as he remembered that Copycat had been caught in his place.

She bobbed in the air and carried him to another roof, where she landed.

"Is there a way we can help against Thesauruswoman?"

"Can you make rain?"

"It's 'Sunny' Weather", Aurore pointed out.

"I know, I know. One can hope, right?"

Plot Hole reappeared behind them and blasted them off the building. Chat Noir crashed two floors down, and his newfound alley twirled in the air, trying not to fall. He rolled and sat, looking up at their opponent, who was still on the roofs. They would be a this for a long, long time, he thought. And he had no idea what Hawk Moth was doing in the meantime.

He jumped to his feet and started running at random, trying to get an assessment of who was still around, and of where his friends were.

Alya was close to her parents, on the phone.

He jumped over a puddle of ink, saw it move under him, and twisted in the air not to land straight into that hole. He rolled and rolled and kept moving. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Alya vanish.

Plot Hole jumped out of her ink.

"I can go on until the end of time, boy. I suggest you stop embarrassing yourself with this lumpish display of persistent failure."

"Is that meant to convince me?" Chat Noir asked, bouncing away. "Because, you know… They say 'words will never harm me'…"

She cringed, guessing his next line, and tried to sink into her ink again. He pointed his stick at her and made it grow.

"But _sticks_ will break my bones!" he finished when the tip of his weapon hit her in the chest.

It was a good blow. She fell to her knees, panting. Unfortunately, she immediately vanished.

He looked around.

Aurore had landed a few feet away. Her phone rang, and she held it away from her when she picked up. Alya jumped out of it, a plastic box under her arm, and… And Adrien had to focus on avoiding a rain of ink blades. He ran again.

He was starting to come up with a plan, but he was going to need either half a ton of cat litter, or a lot of guile to lure Plot Hole where he wanted her. If he could get her to the Grand Paris and keep her in the fridge long enough, her ink would freeze, and it would become breakable. He would be able to get her Akuma out.

That was the flimsiest of all flimsy plans.

It would have to do.

Ladybug was the problem solver, really.

He dodged a ball of ink and spotted Alix and Alya talking, lower down the street. Alya handed her a small plastic box - a blue one, this time - and dove into the girl's phone.

The next second, Chat Noir had to focus on his fight, as yet another hole opened under him. He avoided it, and three more, climbing on a lamppost. He saw several tiny blue, uh, 'things?' land into one of the puddles, and disappear.

"CHAT NOIR!" Alya called from the closest balcony. "YOU'LL NEED THIS!"

He turned. She was holding a green plastic box up. He jumped on the railing and took it from her hands.

It was a box of laundry detergent. Laundry _pods_.

"Nino is on his way", his friend told him. "Just… Her-"

"Ink", Chat finished, grinning and grabbing one of the laundry pods.

The Bubbler was on his way.

###


	24. Chapter 24

Once again, thank you so much for the comments, everyone!

* * *

"It stings, doesn't it?" Hawk Moth said. "Loss. You go into the fight thinking you can stomach _anything_ , but with so much faith in your own luck. You believe you'll get to write your own story, that you will not allow yourself to fail, _ever_. And then…"

He paused, letting his words sink in.

"I have an offer to make."

###

Some people could travel the world in the blink of an eye, jumping through phone screens or photographs. Some people could fly above the roofs of Paris. Some people raced over them, jumping from building to building like a cat.

Some people took the bus.

Nino had been on his way to the Défense district when Alya had called him to let him know there was an attack on her home. He was now on his way there, and he felt like the bus he was on was the slowest of all buses in France, or even Europe, or even the entire planet.

Alya's words were running through his mind, over and over again.

"We are going to need you!" she had told him. "Hawk Moth _and_ Plot Hole are here, and things are bad. Chat Noir can't win on his own, and we're all spent. Aurore is tiring and I don't think I have much magic left. You can make bubbles, can't you?"

He had confirmed he could.

There had been a long silence, then Alya had given him the worst news of the year.

"Nino. I know who Hawk Moth is. He attacked me, I recognized him. It's _mister Agreste._ "

"What?"

Nino had struggled to grasp the entirety of the concept. His mind had settled on "my friend was attacked by the super-powered maniac who has been terrorizing the city" and had remained there for a while. It was terrifying. Then, his train of thought had swerved into the "your best friend's father is a monster" track, and Nino's terror had turned to horrified hopelessness, as an sickening sense of inescapable doom twisted his stomach.

In the meantime, Alya had not stopped talking.

"We'll need to keep Chat Noir away from him. He's still Picture Perfect underneath. He can't find out about that now!"

"Are you sure you got it right?"

"Yes. Nino, I have to go. I'll prepare the terrain for you, against Plot Hole. Just… If you can stop Chat Noir from going after Hawk Moth, _do it_."

When she had hung up, he had found himself sitting there, shell-shocked.

He couldn't believe the news. But, thinking about it, _of course_ he could believe the news. Gabriel Agreste was incredibly unpleasant, and he treated Adrien like dirt, but there was something off about him. Something eerie enough to make Alix remark on it every time she spotted him. When Alya had insisted on teaming up with him to help Adrien, Nino had been viscerally unable to trust the man. When they had first met, on Adrien's birthday, Nino had not known enough about the man to _really_ hate him, but that had changed. When you spent time with Adrien, you started to notice how horrible his father was to him: controlling, abusive, demanding, neglectful… You started to despise him. You started to think your gentle pleading about that birthday party should have included a lot more profanity.

Now, Nino was starting to think that Gabriel had insulted him and thrown him out, made him furious, and immediately taken advantage of that anger to prey on him as Hawk Moth.

It all fit. The timing, the constant trips and absences, the dead wife… Which meant Adrien's mother had been Aricia. Which meant she had not died in a car crash.

Maybe Alya was right when she said Adrien couldn't find out about it now? They would have to break the news, but… They would have to do that _gently_ , at a carefully chosen moment. Like: not while Adrien was possessed by a bloody evil spirit.

Nino hoped Ladybug would find Copycat quickly, because they would need her. As he had nothing to do but sit on his bus seat for a whole ten minutes, he sent Marinette five text messages summing the problem up.

Then, the bus stopped. Nino started running. He wasn't far from Alya's - two short streets away - and he arrived in less than a minute, slaloming between the cops and journalists until he spotted Chat Noir. He was fighting Plot Hole, jumping and running and dodging an endless hail of tennis-ball sized blobs of ink. It didn't look like he was winning. It didn't look like he was tiring either.

Nino looked around. The street was a mess. The ground and buildings were stained black, or covered in gooey blue splatter. Aurore, untransformed, was perched on a roof and was throwing bluish little things on the street. He spotted Alya appearing next to Alix and giving her a plastic box, then jumping back into their classmate's phone. Alix grabbed something from the box and aimed at an ink stain.

They were throwing laundry pods into Plot Hole's ink, Nino realized.

That was why Alya had asked him if he could make bubbles. They had mixed Plot Hole's magical ink with _soap_.

He got his bubble wand out.

###

"No amount of shouting 'Miraculous Ladybug' will fix this", Hawk Moth told Marinette. "You cannot turn back time on my actions. It would imply rewriting a decade of history, and that's well beyond even _your_ powers."

She tried to tune the voice out, looking down at the cursed phone. She wanted to get rid of it, to throw it away, but found she couldn't. As soon as she tried to put it down, her arm started shaking. She felt like there was an invisible link between her and the Akuma inside that fetish, and the creature was fighting its hardest to keep its hold on her. She was scared to let it go, and she knew _that_ fear did not come from her.

"But _I_ made Time Breaker", Hawk Moth continued. " _I_ can go back an hour. I can make it so Theo was never hurt… If you help me back."

###

Chat Noir landed next to Nino and grinned.

"Hey there! Alya told me you might _pop_ _up_ _"_ , he said. "I'm just _bubbling_ with joy."

Nino stared at him for a moment or so, then an ink hole opened under them, and Chat had to grab his friend and jump. There was some rolling, some crashing, some pricey headphones smashing, but they managed not to get sucked into the ink.

"So", Chat Noir asked, picking himself up. "It's been a while. What's _soap_?"

Nino gaped, then winced.

"Now you're just trying too hard. It doesn't even _sound_ like 'what's up'!"

Plot Hole appeared right next to Adrien and grabbed his arm, reaching for his hand and ring.

"I absolutely feel like I should deeply and profusely thank you for your endless palavering", she said. "I am beyond grateful for your timely distraction."

Chat Noir's heart nearly jumped out of his chest.

"WOW!" he exclaimed, kicking her away.

She had a point about his chatting up his friends in the middle of a fight. That had been close. If she had 'palavered' a little less herself, his Miraculous would have been long gone.

"Palawhat?" Nino asked.

"Palavering", Chat explained. "It means talk too much."

"Wait, what?"

"It's really old fashioned."

Nino grimaced.

"I don't think she gets to throw sto-"

A ball of ink nearly smashed into his face. He raised both hands to stop it, sparkled pink, and caught the ink with his bubble wand. The liquid went through the hoop and sprayed black bubbles over Nino's head.

He sucked in a strangled breath.

"Maybe she has a point about the parelaving."

"Palavering."

"We're doing it again."

Chat Noir huffed, but Nino was right. The young hero pounced on Plot Hole, trying his hardest to keep her busy as his best friend did his thing. That "thing" turned out to be "poking each little black bubble to connect them into a larger blob of soapy ink". Nino paused when the bubble hanging from his bubble wand had grown to the size of a basket ball, and looked around, trying to see where to go from there. Alix, who was standing next to a dark puddle farther down the street, gestured to him.

While he was busy exchanging blows and adjectives with Plot Hole, Adrien kept an eye on his friends.

Aurore was sitting on a roof and panting. Alix was running around with her box of laundry pods, but seemed just fine. Alya was jumping in and out of phones, bringing more soap to the crowd: dishwashing soap, liquid cleaner… If an ink puddle, or even small stain, appeared, it was immediately mixed with soap.

Nino was trying to pink the ink off the ground, but to no avail: his bubble popped when it touched the asphalt, and most of the ink the boy had collected ended up on the street. Chat noir frowned and rolled to Alix. He grabbed her plastic box, emptied the laundry pods on the pavement, and jumped back to his fight.

"A cat and a box. How very unsurprising", Plot Hole mocked. "Maybe you want to sit this confrontation out?"

He groaned.

"Stop with the jokes and with the synonyms! It's not your thing. You have to do it right. Like… 'Sometimes you have to think _out of the box!_ '."

She rolled her eyes and blasted him with a fist-sized bullet of ink. He hopped, scooping the liquid in his plastic box, and whirled to Nino.

"Catch!" he yelled, throwing the trapped ink at his best friend.

Nino looked up, startled, but quickly caught on. He grabbed his bubble wand and, with the grace of a professional tennis player armed with the tiniest racket in the world, he smashed the blob of ink flying towards him. It went through the hoop, turning into a shimmering, trembling bubble.

Chat Noir grinned. He pounced on Plot Hole, forcing her to jump away, roll and dive into her ink, which caused the liquid to splash in every direction. The young hero made sure to catch as much of it as he could, while Nino sent his bubble in the air and made it hover a few feet from the ground. What little ink he collected with his wand, he added to the bubble. Chat Noir emptied his box over it when it filled up.

It didn't take long for Plot Hole to weaken: she remained visible, stopped using projectiles, and her ink puddles slowed down to the point that they could not follow Chat Noir. The hero managed to land a blow, then a few blows, then all of the blows he attempted. He ended up knocking her down.

It made her desperate.

"DEUS EX MACHINA!" she screamed.

He braced for impact. Would it be a rocket or an anvil, this time? He whirled, looking around to locate the danger, then the spikes popped out of the ground.

Two things happened at once: a blast of wind sent him flying ten feet away from the very pointy and lethal spikes, and Plot Hole jumped into her very last puddle.

She reappeared into Nino's bubble, too exhausted to transport herself out of it.

###

Ladybug breathed in.

Travel back one hour. Save Theo's life.

Make it so he had never died.

She looked back at the body.

She clenched her teeth.

"Is that the deal you made, _Gabriel_?" she spat. "Bringing your wife back, at the cost of your soul? Because it doesn't look like you got your end of the bargain."

He laughed.

"No. I was offered no such deal. And, really, you should know by now I only make deals that can be upheld. The rules of magic are as tricky as they are crippling, however. Makko can travel back through time, but only up to a point, and Tikki's repairing magic is restricted to whatever damage an _Akuma_ causes."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean 'it was a bank robbery', and we are powerless about trivial disasters caused by mere mortals. I mean 'her teammates carried her to the hospital instead of to me'. I mean that, by the point I was made aware of her injury, I could no longer travel to the moment she had been shot. The butterfly effect would have twisted our world beyond recognition."

Marinette's mind filled in the blanks: Aricia's teammates telling Gabriel the news. His joining his wife, too late. The grief and the shock and the anger. The need to blame someone for her death.

"THAT's why you went after your Chat Noir and Clover?" she exclaimed. "Because they tried to save her, but not the way you wanted them to?"

She heard him click his tongue.

"Need I remind you that time is of the essence, miss?" he said.

When would it become impossible to turn back time? When would saving Theo no longer be an option?

There had to be another solution. If she defeated Hawk Moth, maybe Tikki could… Could what? Erase ten years of history, and every move Hawk Moth had made during that time? Everything Gabriel Agreste had built? And - like ripples, like a tornado born from the flap of a butterfly wing - every move of every single person he had ever impacted? Most of Adrien's life?

Was the Kwami powerful enough to fix an entire decade, anyway?

Marinette had brought Theo into this. She had to do something. She had to save him. But Hawk Moth's offer came at the cost of the world.

"I… I…"

"Why even hesitate?" Hawk Moth asked. "The choice is easy. You have the opportunity to save him, a chance Makko was never given, even though she begged Chat Noir and Clover to "bring Aricia to Argus" for hours on end. She would have paid the price and more. You? There is nothing and no one in your way."

Ladybug closed her eyes, sparing one last thought for Theo, and threw the phone out the window. The next second, she was running and jumping after it, to catch it, to get the Akuma back… Then the darkness in her receded, the Akuma's magical claws let go of her mind, and she grabbed the shutter mechanism to stop herself from falling. She climbed back up, panting.

A shape moved in the darkness, where Theo was lying. A black silhouette uncurled itself and stood, then stomped.

"Why would you do this?" it yelled in a childlike voice. "That wasn't in my scenario! Why did you have to go off script?"

###


	25. Chapter 25

Thank you for the comments, everyone :) I can't even begin to say how happy I am to get so much fantastic feedback!

* * *

The illusion faded.

Theo's clothes turned to a brown skintight costume, complete with _gloves_ \- no wonder Ladybug had not found a pulse: she had been seeing _skin_! - and rabbit ears flattened over Plot Bunny's hazel hair.

She stared at him.

His eyes went wide as he realized he was on the very last floor of a very high tower, with a very stressed out heroine.

###

"Well done!" Chat Noir exclaimed, bumping fists with Nino, right after closing the Grand Paris' cold room's door over Plot Hole.

They would wait for her ink to freeze, then get her out. Chat didn't want her to turn to an ice statue, and he had chilling memories of that fridge.

He did not believe letting her out would be risky: without the ink, she was as good as powerless. He just hoped Ladybug would join them soon.

"I think I'm, like, gonna crash and sleep for a few years", Nino said, wobbling.

Chat Noir grabbed him and kept him upright.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah. Using the magic, it's just…"

"Draining", Alya filled in when Nino failed to find the correct word.

She was sitting on the floor of the kitchen, leaning against a cupboard. She was entirely herself: shirt, jeans, sneakers, and phone. She was texting, or maybe blogging. Alix was sprawled next to her, and wriggled her toes in her dirty socks. Aurore Borell was sitting on a counter, legs elegantly crossed. Everyone was covered in soap and grime.

Nino was the only one even bothering to stand.

"Thanks for the help, all of you", Chat Noir said. "I don't know what I'd have done without you."

His best friend wrapped an arm around his shoulders, in a reminder that he was aware of Adrien's identity, just like Alya. The young hero was not sure how they had discovered his secret. When he had gotten emails from Ladybug and Alya on Chat Noir's private email, he had assumed his partner had told them. Now that he thought about it, if Marinette had not, his calling Alya as Picture Perfect had been a dead giveaway. And he had not even questioned it.

It had been a long day.

He was not even sure how many days had elapsed since he had been possessed, really.

It had been a long whatever.

"Since when are you best pals with Chat Noir?" Alix asked Nino, eyebrows raised.

"I'm best pals with everyone", he replied, not phased for a second.

His hand squeezed Adrien's shoulder.

"SowhoknowswhoIam?" the superhero whispered, lips barely moving, stuck in a silly grin.

"Notalix", Nino mumbled back.

"Okaythen", Chat Noir replied, pulling away.

He looked down at his stick and called Ladybug. She replied near instantly.

"CHAT?"

"Hello there, my lady. I just wanted to check on you. Have you found Copycat?"

He heard a yell, hurrying footsteps, and squeaking.

"Not _yet_ ", she replied. "I've found Plot Bunny. STOP! JUST STOP! JUST…"

Chat Noir waited, eyes wide, listening to the noise of the wind, then to the earsplitting clatter Ladybug's mirror made when it fell.

"Sorry about that", she said when she picked it up. "D'you know what rabbits do when they are threatened?"

"They burrow?"

"They scamper, and _please_ don't tell that boy he could burrow _too_. I've been chasing him from the Défense to the Champs Elysées!"

"I can get there in five minutes", Chat Noir said. "I'll-"

"Where are you?"

"The Bourgeois Hotel. Miss Wifi and the others helped me catch Plot Hole. You know how revenge is a dish best served cold? Well, we'll keep her on ice until you can get here."

"You w… What? Kitty, I'm happy you're… Ngh."

Adrien heard the recognizable sound of a superheroine sliding down a tiled roof, on her backside. He winced.

"… _Back to yourself_ ", she finished in an aggravated voice. "But please, keep it short?"

"She's in the cold room, she can't use her ink", he muttered.

He was happy being back to himself, too. So much that he was getting carried away. He finally felt like he could keep the Akuma in check. It was easier as Chat Noir. He figured Plagg was helping, in some way.

He had three dozen ice puns, but he couldn't let himself be distracted.

"Got you, kitten", Ladybug exclaimed. "Now, _where is Copycat?_ "

Adrien blinked.

"Not _you_ , Chat", she clarified. "Baby rabbits are kittens too."

" _Really?_ "

"Really. I'm going to need the yoyo", Ladybug said. "I'll join you as soon as I'm done here!"

She hung up. He stared at his stick for a moment.

Kittens.

How had he not know that before?

Then, he snapped himself out of the wonder.

"Can you all keep an eye on Plot Hole until Ladybug arrives?" he asked, racing to the kitchen door. "I need to go."

"But you haven't used your special attack", Alya pointed out.

"I know", he said. "But I need to secure the building in case Hawk Moth is around."

He didn't wait for her answer, and ran out of the room. Three corridors away, a soap bubble smashed into him and imprisoned him.

"You're not… Going after… That guy… Alone", Nino gasped from behind him. "No… Way."

Chat Noir rolled in the bubble to turn towards him. He was not alone: Alya had followed him.

"We are waiting for Ladybug", she said, walking to Adrien. "That's final. There are things you don't know yet, about Hawk Moth, about _everything_. There are things we need to talk about, all of us, together. We. Need. To. Plan."

"We can't let him escape after what he just did!" Chat Noir exclaimed. "He went after you and your family! That's what he _does_. He did it before, with the previous heroes. And…" - And he knew who he was. - "He… Could go… After… NINO, LET ME GO! My dad, the mansion, I…"

His friends looked at each other, expressions going dark and faces going pale. They both breathed in. They both breathed in _a second time_. Then Alya took a step forward.

"Hawk Moth… Your father… Adrien, I have bad news", she said, reaching for his hand through the bubble.

The blond looked at her face, but spotted a golden sparkle around her throat. He looked down and froze.

He knew that necklace.

"Where did you… Did Father commercialize it?" he wondered, a bit stunned.

He knew it was impossible. It was a custom design, one of a kind, and maybe Gabriel had tried to forget everything about his wife, but that pendant was an important memory. "Your daddy drew this one", she had told Adrien when he was little. "It was the first gift he sent me", she had explained, voice turning to a goofy whisper. "He tried to make it sound like it was not a big deal."

"It's a long story", Alya replied, taking the necklace off and giving it to him. "And I don't have all the pieces yet. But…"

###

Ladybug dragged Plot Bunny to the basement of the Gabriel skyscraper, squeezing one of the boy's ears. The human ones.

He was young. He was younger than she was. He was also resourceful. She had asked why his parents were not looking for him, considering he had been wandering around Akumaized for days now. He had sent an illusion home, and used the "sleepover at friends" excuse.

Parents in Paris were definitely too trusting.

"I was just supposed to question him", he mumbled. "To figure out your real identity! I mean, I have a list of potential Ladybug candidates, and pictures, so I thought he would know, but he wouldn't tell, and…"

She kicked the last door in and entered a small room with walls covered in photographs. There was a desk, and a chair, to which Theo was tied.

"Thank God you're here", he said.

Marinette nearly collapsed in overwhelming relief.

"Just. A. Second", she said, snatching the notebook attached to Plot Bunny's belt and tearing it up.

An Akuma flew out of the pages.

She caught it. She purified it. She fixed everything, watching the ink ropes around Theo disappear. She took a deep breath, standing between the sculptor and a very confused teen boy.

"EVERYONE RUN", she yelled, grabbing the kid's wrist and dragging it out.

They had to get away before Hawk Moth stopped them.

They did.

###

"Are you alright?" Marinette asked Theo, as they watched the teenage "Lucas" enter a police station.

Lucas was a school kid who had gotten a failing grade on his French homework, on the account that he had written two pages of theories in the middle of his book report on _les Lettres de mon Moulin_. His teacher had not appreciated the digressions (and his forgetting to actually discuss the actual plot of the book), and he had not appreciated the 9/20. He had considered his ideas "very interesting, thank you very much". That was the last thing the boy remembered.

Theo had walked him to the station, while Ladybug found herself a quiet spot to turn back into Marinette. She had barely finished transforming when the sculptor had returned. Tikki had landed on her shoulder, exhausted.

"We need… We need to talk to Plagg", she murmured. "It makes no sense. Nothing Hawk Moth said makes sense. Makko's powers don't work like that."

She looked about to pass out, and closed her eyes, head rolling to the side. There would be no further conversation until she recovered the energy she had lost. Marinette wanted to run off and find some night shop that sold cookies, but she had to make sure Theo was fine first.

She turned to him, waiting for his answer.

"I'm okay", he said, shivering.

He caught her worried glance and straightened up.

"I really am!" he insisted. "Plot Bunny talked my ears off, but they needed me. It wasn't that bad."

You could hear the lie.

"Don't go home", she told him. "Watch the news, wait until… Wait until you hear something good, I don't know what yet."

She tried to walk away, but he grabbed her by her collar.

"Wait a second, where do you think you are going?"

"Chat Noir is waiting for me and I need food for Tikki and-"

"No. No, no, no, you are not running off alone", Theo snapped, waving his arm to stop a taxi.

The car slowed down, and parked next to them.

"So, where are _we_ going?" the sculptor asked.

Marinette stared at him, unwilling to put him in danger again. She was too tired to argue, however. And he had money for transportation. Her pocket money did not nearly cover a taxi fare across Paris.

"Rely on your friends", Tikki muttered.

"The Grand Paris", Marinette said, climbing into the car.

Theo snorted, sitting next to her.

"The Grand Paris", he repeated to the driver.

###


	26. Chapter 26

Once again, thank everyone for the reviews and bookmarks!

Sorry for the delay for this chapter :)

* * *

Marinette and Theo got out of the taxi a street away from the Bourgeois' hotel, in front of a corner store. Marinette ran it, bought a box of cookies, and opened it for Tikki, as Theo stood in front of her, to hide the Kwami from prying eyes.

Tikki swallowed a cookie, then another, then another. She perked up.

"It's all wrong, everything about Makko, everything Hawk Moth said was lies", she announced, grabbing a fourth cookie and nibbling at it.

Theo frowned and looked at Marinette, the worry clear in his eyes. She had not mentioned Hawk Moth had tried to corrupt her. She had said as little as she could. She had the feeling the more Theo heard, the more he wanted to lock her up and go to the adult authorities instead. She was not going to add fuel to his fire.

She lowered her head to reply to Tikki.

"I don't know. Plagg told us very little. I know nothing of the other Kwamis. Plagg, Chat Noir's Kwami", she explained to Theo.

Tikki sighed.

"Plagg told _me_ very little. I didn't even know he had been present the day Aricia died. The previous Ladybug was not operating in Paris back then. She wasn't close to that Chat Noir."

That idea was alien to Marinette, who couldn't fathom her life without Chat Noir.

"There was no need", Tikki continued. "Makko was here and could exorcise the Akumas, who weren't as powerful either. Hawk Moth doubled his powers when he obtained her Miraculous."

"What did Plagg tell you about that?"

"He told me about trying to take the Butterfly pin back. That's when the previous Chat Noir…" - Tikki took a deep breath. - "Plagg escaped with his ring, and he called us all. That was right after Hawk Moth tried to attack Clover's family. According to Plagg, Hawk Moth had been weakened by the fight. He hid, he ran, and none of the other heroes knew who he was. We all went into hiding. We released our Miraculous holders, with no memories of their past as heroes, so they would be safe. If they did not remember, then there was no point for Hawk Moth to go after them. They were useless to him. Then… Then, we waited for him to return."

That was cold. Cold, but necessary, Marinette supposed. If there was no information to extract, then exposing himself was an enormous risk for little to no reward. She wondered if the previous heroes had agreed to that plan, but that was a silly question. Of course they had.

Marinette started walking towards the Grand Paris, in steps fast enough to force Theo to hurry a little.

"So, let me get this straight", Theo asked. "Makko is a Kwami too. Does she make Hawk Moth transform? Was he… Human, normal, like, you know, Ladybug now?"

"Yes", Tikki replied. "And no. Hawk Moth is not corporeal. He is an evil spirit, who moves from person to person. The human we met is his current host. He used to be one of the heroes, he-"

"I hear you, I heard _that_ , but does he _transform_? Can someone, I don't know, snatch his ring, or bracelet, or whatever he uses, and make him human again?"

"He would only lose his hero powers", Marinette replied. "As long as Hawk Moth is not driven out, he'll still be very strong, even if he looks human."

"Well, that's encouraging", Theo mumbled.

"What's the lie, about Makko's powers?" Marinette asked Tikki.

That was the only question that mattered. There was no point hearing the same explanation over and over again. Marinette knew all about Argus being possessed by Hawk Moth and keeping Makko captive, by now. She knew everything about the Akumas. She knew everything about Adrien's mother tragically dying in a "car accident" years before.

She could connect the dots between Plagg picking Gabriel's son - picking Hawk Moth's host's son - as the new Chat Noir, and Adrien emailing her with the news that Hawk Moth could not touch him. It was no accident. Adrien had told her the Butterfly Miraculous had reacted when Hawk Moth had tried to take his ring.

Gabriel had been turned using his feelings for his dead wife, and Plagg had used the same tactics by picking the one person the man could never hurt as his Miraculous holder. He had chosen Gabriel's son. Makko had most likely watched the boy grow, which would make her want to protect him too.

It was a clean, calculated shot to the heart, which made Plagg a conniving, heartless flying _rat_.

"Hawk Moth said Makko wanted Aricia to be brought to Argus", Tikki explained. "That makes no sense. To save Aricia, Makko would have needed to send someone back to the time and location where she was injured, before she was injured. It was _Argus_ who had to come to _Makko._ "

"He wanted to trick me", Marinette replied. "He made a story up, the saddest he could find."

Tikki nodded, but there was one question left without an answer: why hadn't Argus gone back in time to rewrite history? If Makko could indeed travel back, why hadn't Aricia been saved?

The teenager looked at her Kwami, who met her eyes and sighed.

"Makko can only go so far back", she murmured. "The most likely explanation is that Argus couldn't join her quickly enough."

"Plagg would know", Marinette replied. "Let's go and ask."

###

Upon hearing the words "It's a long story", Nino had panicked.

Panic was in order.

There was no manual to tell your best friend that his old man had turned evil, and Nino would have preferred to devise some kind of plan before dropping the news on an Akumaized superhero. Demonic possession messed with one's temper.

That being said, Nino had panicked for nothing. Alya's "It's a long story" had been the mother, grand-mother, and great-grand-mother of all diversionary tactics. Actually, she was climbing up straight to the missing link.

"And I would really need to show you the articles I found on Argus", she was saying. "Yes, Ladybug told us he was one of the previous heroes, and it turns out I had _some_ info on him, it's on my blog, but I don't have my tablet, and maybe we can find one somewhere, do you think Chloé has one? Of course she has one. We should ask Chloé. Should we?"

"I KNOW WHO ARGUS IS", Chat Noir yelled.

He was terrified for his father, and scratching at the bubble Nino kept him trapped in. His friend was starting to think that Adrien would snap not because of the "evil dad" news, but because of the lack thereof.

"Okay so you know", Alya continued, "but, uh, what is really important to know is that he might not be entirely under Hawk Moth's control, because I met him earlier - that was when my parents got out of our building, in the staircase, while you were outside fighting Plot Hole, and it only lasted a few minutes anyway, I don't think anyone noticed I was missing - and _anyway_ I did not escape: he let me go, and…"

Chat Noir punched the bubble, trying to free himself again.

"Nino, if you don't let me go right now, I will-"

"Just let Alya explain, I swear it's-"

Nino gasped as Ladybug appeared at the end of the corridor, followed by a young man who had to be Copycat.

"Is everyone alright?" she asked, trotting to them.

Chat Noir whirled in his bubble to turn to her. Alya wobbled. Nino felt his own knees go weak, and popped the bubble. His costumed best friend crashed, bounced up, and stared at his partner with pure joy.

She ran to him and pulled him into a crushing hug.

Nino watched as Chat Noir's brain overloaded, leaving him stunned and blushing, a bewildered grin on his face. He couldn't have looked happier. The hero tentatively raised his hands, and slowly wrapped his arms around Ladybug. He was trying to hold her without her noticing, used to being pushed away, but she just squeezed closer.

Now that he thought about it, Nino had no idea if Chat Noir knew Ladybug was Marinette. The whole "revealing", "deducing" and "concealing" thing had gotten out of hand.

"Are you holding up alright?" Ladybug asked, nose buried against Chat Noir's shoulder.

There was a lull. Chat looked down at her with infinite tenderness (both Alya and Copycat turned away and looked for a door through which they could leave). Then, Chat perked up.

"I'm _feline_ just fine."

That got Ladybug to look up with a bit of a huff. Her partner grinned.

"Had a rough patch, but I was not about to 'give up and wallow'", he explained, quoting Marinette's words to Hawk Moth.

She gaped. He winked.

So, he knew who she was, Nino mused.

Ladybug huffed some more.

"Stupid cat", she mumbled, pressing her forehead against Chat Noir's shoulder.

Her partner smiled and hugged her, actually daring to squeeze, this time. He lowered his head, closed his eyes, and pressed his cheek against her hair. His hand crawled up her back to rest on her shoulder. By that point, even Nino was inching towards the door to give them some privacy.

Chat's eyes snapped open when he realized the hug had been going on for way too long. He pulled back - just the head and shoulders, as he was not about to let go of her - and took a deep breath.

"What's wrong?"

She froze, for a split second, then looked up to meet his eyes.

"It's about your father", she said, her voice low but hard as steel. "He is Argus. He is Hawk Moth."

###

Nathalie walked into the mansion through the back door, silently, after not so discretely going through the front gates (the cops were guarding the Bourgeois' hotel, and had wanted to see her ID), stealthily crossing the destroyed courtyard, and turning her keys into the lock with infinite precautions. She took off her shoes as she walked in and did not turn the lights on.

She knew the place by heart. Actually, she knew it better than her own apartment, which had blueish walls and maybe white tile, at least in the kitchen, or was it grey? She crashed there at one in the morning, after work, and left at six so she could be at the mansion when Adrien woke up. She basically _lived_ at the Agreste's. She only slept elsewhere because Gabriel had never invited her to use one of the guest rooms (which would have made her life easier, though she wouldn't have accepted the offer). _Adrien_ had suggested it. She had berated him about it. "It would be unprofessional", she had told him. What she actually thought was that she needed a few hours of her day away from the mansion, away from her employer, and away from Adrien himself.

The father slithered his way into her sanity, and the child slithered his way into her heart, and she could not allow that.

Being fired had hit her harder than expected.

She was the same as everyone. She "needed that job". Of course, she had spent years thinking of applying somewhere else (in a day or two, maybe three, no later than the next paycheck). Years, while her MBA collected dust, while she managed the planning of a child star on top of (and maybe instead of) his father's. She was about to quit. She had been about to quit for ten years now.

Yet, when Gabriel had told her she was to leave, her first thought had not been about money, nor about her lack of future prospects. It had been that she would have to walk away from the boy.

It was very surprising, because she didn't have a motherly bone in her body, and distinctly remembered wanting to smother him, as a baby, every time he cried. She had gotten him pens for several birthdays in a row.

She had spent years by his side, watching his quiet misery, without ever raising a finger to help him (not her place, not her job). If the boy had asked her to describe herself, as a person, she would have told him "Your mother didn't like me. Your mother, who liked _everyone_ and managed to fall in love with your father of all people, didn't like me". It was the opposite of an endorsement, a sort of badge of Nathalie's failings as an human being. She had never quite cared about it, except sometimes, when the boy looked at her with sad eyes and she felt like fleeing. Not that it did not get to her, his unhappiness, his constant disappointments… But, once again: not her place, not her job.

When he had turned into Paris' most popular vigilante, she had not noticed a thing. That was how much attention she paid to him.

Yet, she had found himself kidnapping him to get him to safety (until he had used magic to escape).

Yet, she found herself tiptoeing into her employer's house at night, with all lights off, not quite knowing what she was looking for, but certain it would be bad. It was not like she believed she would find something that should be brought to Ladybug, but… She had a _feeling_.

She had not noticed Adrien's behavior was strange. Teenagers were strange. So he sometimes sneaked out? Probably a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend. Or maybe he wanted to go to the arcade or to parties. He was a teenager. She had been prepared for his escapades to be discovered, for Gabriel to shatter his soul and to voice his disappointment about her sense of responsibilities. She had not been expecting that "Chat Noir" thing. She had not noticed.

What she had noticed was _Mister Agreste_ acting strange.

He didn't work as much as he said he did. His company ran well, every cog well oiled, turning smoothly. Gabriel could just leave the hard work to his underlings, make a few appearances for the sake of PR, and count his stacks of bills. He could have a comfortable life doing nothing at all, yet he was busy all day… Doing nothing. He vanished for hours, and she had no idea what he was doing. "Meeting a business prospect", he would say. "Inspecting a factory".

So much time unaccounted for. A lot of it coinciding with Adrien's absences.

She looked around.

The house was quiet. She hoped Gabriel was gone. If not, she hoped he was sleeping. She had not seen lights from the outside, so maybe he was somewhere in the city, terrifying children or attacking innocent passerby.

 _Or maybe he is just at the office, keeping himself busy_ , she told herself. _Or maybe he ran to the Grand Paris when he saw Chat Noir was there._

She had seen it on the news, and the police was circling the hotel.

He was still inside, and the family's chauffeur was watching the place, ready to follow the boy if he left.

She made her way to Gabriel's office, and stopped in front of the closed door.

When she had told Adrien she was taking him to "safety", the teenager had not paused to think. He had not asked the obvious question, which was: "why are you not taking me home to my father?". Maybe being possessed and half-drowned had confused him. Maybe he was used to neglect. Maybe he had his own suspicions.

She opened the door and slipped into Gabriel's dark office.

There was a glimmer of pink light from the desk, a clinking noise. She jumped out of her bones, but only saw darkness when she turned. Darkness, and a paler shadow on the seat. The desk lamp flicked on.

"A bit late to be working", Gabriel said from his chair, looking her up and down.

He stopped on her socks, lifted both eyebrows, and studied her face. There was an open jar of honey in front of him, but no cup of coffee. He was holding a spoon, and dropped it back into the honey.

"I was just…" Nathalie said - _WHAT WAS HE DOING THERE SITTING IN THE DARK?_ \- "Checking… I mean, I wanted to make sure… I mean, I was watching the news, sir. I…"

"If you were looking for my son, I believe he is at the Grand Paris with his superpowered friends."

She swallowed and took a step back. He stared at her, inscrutable, scratching at his tie.

"Oh, ah, I…", she stammered. "I'll, uh, just go and check, then."

He nodded.

Nathalie did not manage to look away but moved back, fumbling for the door handle. The door slammed shut behind her. She heard the lock turn.

Gabriel looked at her, pursing his lips. He was silent for a while, then he reached for the spoon and lifted it out of the honey. He taped it against the glass of the jar, twice, staring at the utensil.

"You had the right idea when you tried to get my son out of town", he said, voice blank. "A shame it did not work."

Nathalie whirled to the door and tried to shake it open.

###


	27. Chapter 27

Thanks for the reviews, everyone! :)

* * *

Marinette could be called manipulative. She didn't mean to be, but the title of Ladybug came with secrecy and lies. It came with trickery, sometimes, when an Akuma victim could be reached with words.

From the look on Chat Noir's face when she told him about his father - disgust and betrayal - she knew he believed the embrace had been meant to control his reaction, but the truth was she had needed to hold on to him just as much as he had needed to be held.

He pushed her away and took two steps back, furiously shaking his head.

"That's not true", he said. " It can't be true."

She took a step forward and so did Alya. Marinette could tell her friend wondered why she had told Adrien the news, when he was still infected by an Akuma. Nino looked both furious and horrified. The truth was... There was no other choice.

It became clear when her earrings beeped.

Alya looked at the Miraculous, startled, but Chat Noir didn't notice the signal of Ladybug impending transformation. He turned to the blogger.

"That's not true, is it? Is that what you were trying not to tell me?"

Alya swallowed, bewildered, but recovered quickly. She took a deep breath.

"It... It is, Chat Noir. I saw him. I'm sorry."

He stumbled back, sweeping through the air with a clawed hand, just once. He hit a wall and left four short scratches on the wallpaper.

You could see his every thought on his face. His disbelief and rage turned to stunned realization as he cataloged every hint and every memory, then he fell apart. He looked at Ladybug with despair.

"How did you find out?"

"The room where he held Tikki and Copycat... It was in his company's building, in the Défense district."

He stared at her and said nothing. She closed the distance between them and put her hands on his shoulders.

Her Miraculous beeped again.

She could have delayed telling Adrien. The moment she had transformed into Ladybug, the earrings had beeped. Tikki had not recovered from her abduction and from freeing Plot Bunny. She needed a lot more food and a lot more rest. It meant cleansing Picture Perfect and Plot Hole would have to wait.

Telling Chat Noir about his father had been a split second decision. When Ladybug had arrived, it was clear he would be going after Gabriel, despite Alya and Nino's efforts to distract him. Marinette had gone in with the conviction that honesty was the best option. She trusted Chat Noir. Akuma or not, he was the strongest person she knew. She was sure he could handle the news, provided you picked the right moment. Like when he was "feline fine".

The best she could do was give him a chance to deal with the anger and grief before he turned back into Picture Perfect. Adrien was stronger as Chat Noir. She suspected Plagg was fighting a silent battle in the back of his hero's mind.

"I... We..." He murmured, trying to focus, eyes lowered. "How do we fight him?"

Marinette hugged him again, squeezing as hard as she could. He was trying so hard, even when facing the fact that his one surviving parent was an enemy.

"We don't fight him", she said, pulling back in surprise as Alya's voice joined hers.

"We rescue him", her friend finished, which was exactly what Marinette had been about to say.

Chat Noir stared at her, puzzled.

"So he made a pact, just like we all did", Alya continued. "Maybe it has been much longer, and maybe what Hawk Moth has done is much worse, but… It's still possession. We _rescue_ him."

The words meant more from her than from Marinette: Alya had been one of the victims. She didn't remember being Lady Wifi, but she knew everything that had happened. She had dealt with the consequences of her feelings being used to make her a pawn.

Marinette had no idea if what Alya said was true. Clearly, Gabriel transformed back. Clearly, he was aware of being under Hawk Moth's control. He would not forget. She was not sure he was entirely innocent.

Chat's face still lit up for a second. He hoped it was true.

"He gave me the necklace", Alya added. "He told me it was to snap you out of the Akuma's control, but I think it was meant to stop _him_. When Hawk Moth attacked me, when he saw the pendant, he let me go. He told me to run."

Chat patted his pocket and got a golden chain and pendant out of it. He stared at it, lips pursed, then took a shaky breath.

"It… It was my mother's", he said. "It-"

There was another beep, and Ladybug's transformation wore off. Her partner turned to her, surprised, but his train of thought was not derailing from the "mother" track.

He stared at her, opening and closing his mouth, torn between a "why is your transformation already over?" and much darker remarks. She could imagine them.

She cupped her hands so Tikki could land. The kwami all but crashed there.

Chat Noir looked at her, eyes wide and unblinking, then tried to tear his ring off his hand.

Alya, Nino, Marinette and even Theo grabbed him to stop him.

"I need to talk to Plagg!" Chat Noir yelled. "He lied to us! He would know, he would-"

Marinette intertwined their fingers on both hands, and he immediately stopped thrashing, wary of his claws. She could feel the necklace crushed between their palms.

"Please, please wait", she begged. "Talk to us first. The instant you turn back, the Akuma will try to control you. Don't give it more power than it actually has."

"I-I need to… Plagg must…"

"Dude", Nino cut in, wrapping an arm around his shoulders, "Marinette is right. If someone can fight that Akuma off, it's you, but don't go in angry or you're gonna have a bad time."

Alya wrapped her own arm over Nino's, from the other side.

"What he said."

Theo made no noise at all, and walked to the end of the corridor, out of earshot, to "keep watch".

Chat struggled for a moment, breathing hard and fast, but he was not trying to free himself. It was all nervousness and confusion. He stopped.

"My mother was the second Butterfly", he murmured. "The pink butterfly. How did I not know that?"

There were so many questions left unsaid, on her life, on her death, and Marinette didn't even know how to answer that first one. She did the only thing she could, releasing one of Chat's hands so she could wrap her arm around him and hold him tight.

###

Nathalie shook the door, trying to get the lock to give in, to no avail. She breathed in to fight her rising panic. Gabriel had not even moved from his chair. What was she afraid of? Sure, the door had locked itself, seemingly by magic, but… But…

No amout of logic could dispel irrational fears in a world where supervillains routinely ravaged cities armed with magical umbrellas and soap bubbles.

She turned to Gabriel, pressing her back against the door. He switched his desk lamp off. The room went dark.

"Are you angry?" he asked.

Nathalie fumbled for the light switch. Her fingers brushed against flickering wings, and she jumped away in revulsion.

A shining creature appeared in front of mister Agreste, on the rim of the honey jar. It was a pink… Kwami. That was the name Adrien had used to refer to the flying cat she had seen earlier. This one had wings, no ears, and spiral-shaped markings on the forehead. It cast a faint pink glow over the desk and Gabriel, who was still looking at Nathalie.

"That's something I always liked about you", he said. "That apparent calm. The coldness."

His voice was so distracted, so vacant it didn't sound like he was talking to Nathalie.

She slapped the light switch.

For a second, the fluorescent light blinded her, but a few blinks solved that problem, and she managed to take a look around her. A few black butterflies were flitting through the air.

 _Apparent_ calm was a very accurate description of Nathalie on any given day. It was even truer now.

"You are Hawk Moth", she declared, face carefully blank.

The Kwami perked up, looking at her with empty eyes. It swallowed a spoonful of honey.

Gabriel took a deep breath.

"So it would appear", he replied.

The little fairy dropped the spoon and spiraled into the air, sucked into the man's tie. A vivid pink spark shone through the cloth, and spread in a glittering swirl around him, intertwined with gleaming violet magic. Nathalie watched as the pink light drew a new costume over Gabriel's pristine white suit - a deep blue tuxedo - and as the thick dark glow turned it violet and black. The magic made its way up, the brightness near entirely smothered. Gabriel pursed his lips as it materialized a cowl over his face. It was the only movement he made during the transformation, until the magic coalesced into a rod of dark energy. Hawk Moth extended his hand to grab it as it turned into a cane.

He played with it for a second, making it spin in his hands, then smirked and stood.

"I feel like I should apologize", he commented, smiling. "I have wronged you."

The cane clicked on the floor as he took a step towards Nathalie. She grabbed the door handle, again, and released it. That lock was armored - Gabriel took his company's secrets seriously - and it would not be forced open. Her only way out was through the window, and she ran that way.

Hawk Moth pointed at her with his cane. It grew and stabbed the wall between the window and Nathalie, inches away from her face.

Her knees turned to jelly.

The cane shrunk, and Hawk Moth crossed the space between them, his shiny black shoes nearly toe to toe with Nathalie's red socks. She stepped away, stomach twisted by fear. He followed. She tried to recall every self-defense lesson she had taken (it had been part of her curriculum as Adrien's caretaker), and came up empty.

She punched him.

Not only did he not bulge, she felt like she had cracked every bone in her hand. He chuckled and clicked his tongue.

"Now that _that_ _'_ _s_ out of the way, let me assure you that I do not intend to harm you", he swore. "As I was saying, I feel like I wronged you, and I'd like to make amends."

"Thatsverynicenowpleaseletmego."

"An unused MBA, a child you didn't want - the son of a woman you loathed, to make things worse - to babysit… It was a lot to ask from you. I am sorry, really. So much potential wasted."

 _Don_ _'_ _t listen to him_ , she told herself.

It felt like he was reading her mind, and he probably _was_. It was how his powers worked. He waited for his preys to be at their lowest before going in for the kill. He wanted them angry enough to make pacts with the devil.

"You fired me not twelve hours ago", she retorted, aware that antagonizing him was the last thing to do, but left with no other option.

"In a fit of anger that was as idiotic as it was inexcusable, but I'll still beg for your forgiveness."

She took a shaky breath.

He walked closer once again, and took her phone from her pocket.

"You know what struck me about you? You were trapped in a magical soap bubble, flying at cloud level, and what did you do? Organize my schedule. Imagine my surprise when I checked my calendar, right after the Bubbler was defeated, and found that every appointment was annotated. That's dedication."

"That's acrophobia", Nathalie said, taking one step towards the window.

This time, he did not follow her motion.

"Do you want the keys to the company?" he asked. "Let's say… A vice-president position? I can hardly leave, with my name on the door. But you would be in charge, and I have no doubt you would excel in that role. You know the ropes as well than I do, and all I was ever interested in was the creative aspect of the job."

It was Gabriel's voice coated in the same honey he used when talking to the press, but with a hint of venom Nathalie had never heard. It was the voice of the devil at the crossroads, hoping for you to trade away your soul. He offered an alluring deal.

"And what would it cost me?"

He looked at her phone, that he had turned on, then sighed.

"It would cost you a few steps and two words", he replied. "All you would have to do is walk into the Grand Paris, talk to my son in private, and convince him to give up on that second life of his."

"You want the ring", she murmured.

The same ring she had taken from the boy, and lost, a few hours before.

"It should be easy for you to get", Hawk Moth stated. "Just tell him the truth: that you are terrified he will get hurt. That you love him. Anyone can be Chat Noir, but only one boy can be what that child is to you."

Nathalie stared at him, chilled to the core. His tone betrayed nothing of his thoughts. His words betrayed everything of hers.

" _You_ are the danger he faces", she remarked.

He laughed.

"Let's not pretend that evil stops at me."

She swallowed, horrified.

"Will you give me superpowers?" she asked.

A black butterfly landed on her phone.

"Do you want me to?" Hawk Moth replied.

###


	28. Chapter 28

Eventually, Adrien's muscles relaxed. Eventually, exhaustion triumphed over nerves, and he sank to the floor in a crouching position.

Eventually, he found himself sitting against the wall, with Nino pressed against his left side, and Marinette leaning against his right shoulder. She was dozing off, and trying hard not to. She was still holding his hands, fiercely protective, squeezing with much more force than he would have expected from an exhausted, untransformed teenage girl. If he had dared, he would have freed his hands and wrapped himself around her, held her close, shielded her. He didn't know what to make of this girl who was neither stuttering Marinette, neither sassy Ladybug, but the core of her was there. The iron-clad will, the bravery, the strength. She was different, however. There were chinks in her armor. She was fragile and tired and soft, and all of the tenderness he had felt for Ladybug, a tenderness that had no place to go so far, was coalescing around that slip of a girl. A slip of a girl who had stood up against Plot Hole to save him. A slip of a girl who had faced Hawk Moth - resisted Hawk Moth - without as much as a sliver of magic.

Thinking about how she made him feel was also so much easier than thinking about everything else.

Tikki, curled up on Alya's cupped hands, was willing to answer his questions. Alya herself was sitting cross-legged in front of Chat Noir. She had taken a long look at Marinette, hesitated, and decided that… Adrien had no idea what she had decided. If she had joined into the mass-hug, she wouldn't have been unwelcome. Yet, she had preferred to stay away.

Nino clearly didn't like it: he had extended a leg so the tip of his sneaker would press against the sole of hers.

Copycat was nowhere in sight. He had vanished a little earlier, and Chat couldn't have said when.

Adrien closed his eyes and brushed Marinette's thumb with his own. He had to snap out of it and start asking questions. He looked at Tikki.

He had so many things to ask and couldn't decide which answer he wanted most, so he started with strategy.

"How do we defeat him?"

Tikki leaned forward.

"There are a few approaches that might work, and we might have to try them all. Hawk Moth had never gotten his hands on a Miraculous before, and his powers changed, but he is still an Akuma. He cannot inhabit a living body, so there has to be a fetish he is living in. We break it, and he will be immaterial for a time."

"Until he finds another host", Adrien corrected.

The Kwami nodded.

"Which can take him minutes just like it can take him years. It depends on how vulnerable the people around him are when he is torn away from an host."

Alya peeked over the Kwami to look at her.

"The fetish is something that has meaning to the possessed, right? Could it be the Miraculous?"

Tikki frowned, considering the idea.

"It's not possible. Clearly, Makko still inhabits it, and…" - Her mouth twitched and twisted. - "There would be no way in for anything but a Kwami."

 _What are you lying about now?_ Adrien wondered.

"Taking the Miraculous away is _still_ a necessity", she said. "Without Makko, Hawk Moth will be significantly weakened."

Marinette straightened at that, going into full Ladybug mode. Her hands slipped out of Adrien's and he felt absurdly cold.

"How much do Makko's power impact Hawk Moth's?" his partner asked. "You said they changed."

"They do. We Kwamis are gifters, you know that. We give you strength, invulnerability, as well as our special power and a magical tool. Makko is the same, except… She likes to spread her magic between several people, when the Butterfly is not directly needed."

"Like Argus and Aricia", Chat Noir commented, keeping his voice in check.

"And more", Tikki replied, jumping on Alya's arm.

Butterfly wings emerged from the girl's skin and promptly sank back in.

"Makko would find people who wanted to help, or needed a little help, and give them strength. Not always a lot of it. Not even a costume, sometimes. Just a little push. Her main power is fairly specific, and doesn't get used much, so she felt like it was the best way for her to employ her magic. Now… Hawk Moth is the one with the varied abilities. Weather control, talking to animals, mind control… And, after obtaining the Miraculous, he found a way to mix his powers to Makko's. He is using her as a battery."

"Doesn't make sense", Nino cut in. "I still do the bubble thing. And Alya jumps through phones."

"I think it goes both ways, that she gets to mimic some of his abilities", Tikki replied. "Honestly, I can't explain it. It's the first time one of us is controlled by an enemy. And he was hidden for so long, he clearly needed years to gain access to her magic. I have no idea what he might have done to her."

Adrien's best friend leaned forward.

"So we grab the Miraculous and half of our problems are gone? I'm in. What is it?"

"It's a butterfly-shaped pin. He's wearing it on-"

"Under his clothes, on the chest", Chat Noir said, tapping his sternum with a balled fist. "Don't fall for the one on his collar. That's plastic."

Nino squinted, turned, and grabbed Adrien's suit at the shoulder. He pulled on the leathery cloth, stretched it, released it.

"You mean under the unbreakable, magical super-armor you heroes get?"

Chat closed his eyes, just for a second, to deal with the idea that he would have to be the one to handle that problem. A part of him wanted to run, and to let anyone but him face his father. He buried that feeling. Then, he chuckled.

"It just so happens that I get unbreakable, magical super-claws", he said, holding a palm up. "Cutting edge, you won't find better."

Nino smiled at the joke, but the look on his face was just sad. He still bumped his fist against Chat Noir's palm.

"We'll be right by your side, pal", he promised. "Soaper-claws or not."

Adrien gaped. That was a terrible pun. He wouldn't have made it.

He _adored_ Nino.

"Hawk Moth will get quite the _reception_ ", Alya added.

They all turned to Marinette, who gave them a deer in headlights look.

"Ah", she mumbled in absolute panic. "Uh. Something something _bug_?"

They all blinked. Alya gestured, trying to convey a "way to drop the ball".

Chat Noir felt _warm_. The fumbling was _endearing_ , and when Marinette raised her hands and took the sky as a witness to exclaim that "no one had told her there would be puns", tenderness overwhelmed him. He brushed her hair away from her temple and leaned down to kiss her. He reconsidered a second before they lips touched - How did you go about it, really? Maybe he should have asked her opinion first? Talked about it? Was a surprise kiss okay? - and ended the motion by awkwardly pressing their foreheads together. Marinette, who knew full well what he had been about to do, froze.

He heard her swallow.

He heard Nino and Alya scamper "discretely".

Marinette slipped a hand between her face and Chat Noir's, pressing the tip of her finger to his nose. She didn't push him away. Instead, the finger traced the border of his mask, to his temple.

She was blushing. So was he, but he still grinned.

"May I kiss you, my lady?"

She paused once again, squeaked, then composed herself.

"What are you waiting for, scaredy-cat?"

 _Nothing,_ he thought, pulling her to him and kissing her softly.

###

It was stunning, the impact a single syllable could have on a man. Two letters, and Hawk Moth went from suave to foaming at the mouth.

All Nathalie had to do was say "no".

"I lay the world at your feet in exchange for _one_ thing", he yelled, "and you would rather stay right where you are? With no life, no recognition, no future? A glorified baby-sitter?"

Had he been reading her mind, during her talk with Adrien, or was it "Picture Perfect" he could spy on?

She backed away, terrified, but there was no "away" to get to. The door was out of reach, the window was out of reach, and Hawk Moth pushed her against the wall with no effort at all.

He looked at her phone. The butterfly was crawling on it, but not sinking into the screen, which she knew was the expected behavior. The man frowned and raised a questioning hand, and coaxed the insect into the phone with the other. He studied her face, his fingers nearly brushing her cheek, and pulling back.

"Why are you not angrier? Why won't you accept my terms?" he asked, straight into her head. "I thought your worthless existence frustrated you to no end. And here I am, offering you not only a way out, but a way _above_ everything else. Why won't you take it?"

 _Because I can_ _'_ _t do that to Adrien_ , she thought.

Hawk Moth tilted his head to the side.

"You are overestimating how important you are to that boy", he said.

It stung. She tried to ignore that, but the terror didn't make it easy to keep her feelings in check.

"Not a mother, nor a surrogate…" he continued, his voice echoing through her mind. She could see a pink glow on the edges of her visual field. "Actually, his _actual_ mother would never have wanted you near him, for good reason."

"Still more of a parent to him than you are by this point", she retorted, hoping to see him wince.

It did not work. If it hurt Gabriel, he did not let it show.

"A stellar parent you make", he commented, "stealing gifts from little girls to save your own skin."

Her first reaction was shame. The next was indifference, a roll of the eyes (that he caught), a mental "yes, and so what?" (that he smirked at). Then, the irony in his statement hit her, just like the audacity of it.

"In comparison to _what_?" she snapped, gesturing at his costume. "An insane lunatic who abandoned his son so he could hunt down silly pieces of jewelry? A son he shoved onto the first available stranger because he couldn't be bothered to wave at him once every other week? And what FOR, anyway? Is there even a point to all of this? What is so important that you get to engineer _my_ life around _your_ goals?"

She jumped back, startled and horrified, trying to rein the anger in. The pink light around her eyes was bright enough to light his face. He was smiling.

"I'm sorry, Nathalie", he told her, throwing the phone away and walking to the desk to collect a tablet from a drawer.

It was the one Gabriel used for video calls, on the days he vanished from the face of the earth. He had requested it back when he had fired Nathalie. Hawk Moth inspected its screen and walked to her, pushing it into her hands.

"Let me make it up to you."

###

"Well, uh, _that_ will cheer him up", Nino said as Alya dragged him far, far away from Chat Noir and Marinette.

His wrist hurt, but it was Alya touching him and he never protested about that.

"Months of coaxing and advice and encouragement, and it only took her being Ladybug", she said, letting out a heartfelt sigh.

The tiny red Kwami, who was perched on her shoulder, echoed her.

Alya smiled, and there was some happiness there, though she still looked sad and tired. Nino tried to put the gloom aside - they would be returning to that soon enough - and to focus on the good news.

"Come on, we all knew they would get together at some point", he said with a grin.

His friend crossed her arms.

"Did we? Because I remember you pushing Adrien in Chloé's direction."

"Of course I encouraged the Chloé thing! I didn't know Marinette liked Adrien, back then, and Chloé is hot."

Alya glared at him. Tikki opened her eyes so wide that the black spot on her forehead vanished. Nino belatedly realized that he couldn't have uttered a worse sentence if he had tried.

"Which means nothing", he amended, panicking. "I mean, ghost pepper is hot and I don't like it."

There was more glaring.

"And that was before I realized that Chloé, was, uh, Chloé?" he added, growing desperate.

Alya was showing no signs of relaxing. Nino was praying for a miracle. It (somehow) arrived in the form of the guy who had been Copycat.

"THE TWO OF YOU DON'T MOVE", he said, hurrying to them with a platter filled with sandwiches and cookies. He turned to Nino. "Open your mouth."

The teenager blinked.

"Wha-"

Ex-Copycat stuffed a sandwich into his mouth. He shoved one into Alya's hands.

"I'm looking for a 'Nino' and an 'Alya' and a 'Marinette'. I've already found an 'Alix'. Parents, on the first floor, worried sick. Go, go", he announced, grabbing Tikki and dropping her on the platter, amid all of the cookies.

The Kwami opened her mouth in joy, and grabbed one.

"Frents?" Nino mumbled through the bread and cheese.

"Parents. A few sisters. Now go tell them you're alive. I assume 'Marinette' is 'that kid I arrived with'?"

"Er", Alya replied, trying to deflect.

"You sent Alix downstairs?" Nino asked.

"Yes. Now go."

"But who is watching Plot Hole?"

"Sunny Weather, two cops, and a guy from the security team in a dark room somewhere", the man said, placing another sandwich in Nino's hands and hurrying away, towards the corridor where they had left Chat Noir and Marinette.

Alya opened her mouth wide as her brain tried to formulate protests, her matchmaking efforts compromised by the interruption Copycat was planning.

Nino grabbed her wrist and dragged her towards the staircase.

###


	29. Chapter 29

Marinette had lost the use of words. It wasn't uncommon for her in Adrien's presence, unless she had to deliver a rousing speech about embroidery, but it was unheard of in front of Chat Noir. Then again, _same person_. The way he looked at her was going to kill her or make her faint, maybe both. It was definitely doing terrible things to her brain cells, frying them and freezing them all at once, and she found it very hard to gather the wit to say _one_ coherent sentence. It was silly, because the way he looked at her was hardly new. She knew that look. She had seen it every day they had patrolled together. Most often, it had been when she caught Chat Noir without his smug grin, in those moments between the fighting and the flirting. Sometimes, it had been to her face. She had not imagined it could be that serious, because when was Chat serious, _ever_?

It was.

Here they were, halfway between themselves and their masks, uncertain of who was the mask and who was the true self, and unconcerned about that small issue. They would find out. He was the boy with the paper bag on his head who had sat next to her on that roof days before. She was the girl who had poked him in the nose. He was the boy who thought Chat Noir felt like the person he should always have been, to the point that an Akuma had latched onto those doubts and fed from them. She was the girl who sometimes wondered if she was good enough to be Ladybug.

At the core, they were who they were when push came to shove, and they _knew_ that. It had nothing to do with being Ladybug and Chat Noir. He was the boy who put himself between his classmates and the danger when an enemy attacked. She was the girl who did the same.

It was fortunate that they knew that, because Marinette sure felt like an absolute doofus. Without all of their backstory, she was not sure Adrien could have seen past her current klutziness. The "scaredy-cat" comment had been an accomplishment in itself.

He wriggled his eyebrows and gave her his silliest grin. That helped her brain reboot.

"If I hear 'cat got your tongue' one more time…" she muttered.

"I'm all out of puns", he replied. "All out of words, I think."

She smiled and ran a hand through his hair, but the part of her brain allocated to processing hero business was resurfacing, and their current issues came back to her: Hawk Moth, Gabriel Agreste, Picture Perfect, and everything else.

Chat saw the change on her face, and his own darkened.

"We should check on Plot Hole", he said, pulling back. "Before she turns into an icicle."

They heard hurrying footsteps, and Theo all but appeared next to them, and put a platter down by their feet with a deafening clatter. Tikki looked up from a pile of cookies, cheese fragments, and slices of bread. She didn't say a word, too busy nibbling on a cookie larger than her head (the good kind, with cashews and nuts and gigantic chocolate flakes), but she blinked and nodded and waved.

"Okay", Theo exclaimed. "Uh. Sorry to interrupt. A Thomas and a Sabine are looking for a Marinette, in case that means anything to anyone, and I'll just turn my back now and pretend I don't notice if someone runs offs right now."

Marinette's nervousness in front of her crush was nothing compared to the sheer panic that hit her at those words. She recoiled in horror.

"Oh no. Nononononononononono. I texted them I was staying at Nino's for the night."

Adrien stared at her.

"The same Nino who was shown on TV fighting Plot Hole?"

She jumped to her feet.

"I don't even want to know what's going through their minds", she replied, frantic.

She tried to straighten her stained clothes. They looked like she had been fighting a war, which was not far from the truth.

Her eyes went wide and her eyes moved back to Chat Noir.

He didn't have parents who would worry about him and who would have terrified thoughts running through their minds. He just had Gabriel, whose allegiances were questionable at best, and who had never seemed to care about his son at all.

"I'll be fine", Adrien said, with a kind smile and a resigned everything else.

Marinette hesitated, crouching.

"I'll call th-"

Chat Noir jumped to his feet and pulled her up.

"You go and reassure them right now, my lady. I'll be just fine. _Purr_ fectly fine."

"I'll stay with Chat Noir", Tikki announced, flying up. "I'd like to talk to him."

Marinette's eyes moved back and forth between her partner and the Kwami. Chat Noir grinned and ushered her off.

"Come on, don't make them wait."

She took a few steps backs, towards the elevator, and he watched her go. When she finally (and reluctantly) turned away, he raced to her and hugged her from behind, pecking her ear and hair.

"Also, it will go well. Whether you tell them who you are or not. It will go well."

She wrapped her arms over his, relaxing despite herself. She twisted in his arms and kissed him, just a brush of the lips and a bump of the noses. His face brightened. He released her and slowly moved away.

"Go", he mouthed.

She did.

###

Tikki watched the doors of the elevator close over Marinette, and Chat Noir's expression turn dark.

She flew to him but Theo, who had long legs, was faster. He put a hand (significantly larger than a Kwami's) on the boy's shoulder and squeezed. Adrien tilted his head to the side and gave him an annoyed side look.

"What's new, Copycat?" he asked.

Theo winced and muttered something about earworms and Tom Jones. Chat Noir smirked, with a mean edge, but mostly with smug satisfaction. The sculptor stared and blinked, then patted his head. It was very clear that the blond was not used to having his head patted, especially not by someone barely taller than him.

"Let's not go down that path", Theo said. "You know, if you had told me Ladybug was _twelve_ , instead of going for the 'we are very close' angle, you'd have spared yourself a very tiring afternoon."

"She's fifteen!"

"It makes absolutely no difference! I'm a renowned artist with a full-t… with jobs and a mortgage! I'd have appreciated to be told my muse was still attending kindergarten."

"Is it my fault you didn't get the picture?"

Tikki flew to them and hovered between their faces before the arguing could get worse. Theo squeezed Adrien's shoulder one last time, then moved away.

"I'll leave the two of you to your… heroic discussion, I suppose", he said, quietly walking away.

Chat Noir massaged his own shoulder, looking confused and a bit pleased. He snapped himself out of it and collected Tikki in one hand, then went to pick the platter of cookies up and walked into the closest room. It was a bedroom - unsurprisingly, in an hotel - and he sat on the bed.

"He was arguing with me to distract me, wasn't he?" he whispered.

Tikki nodded.

"I think it was his way to go about it, yes."

Chat Noir smiled, faintly, then bit his lower lip. The smile faded as a pink glimmer appeared around his eyes.

"Hold on!" the kwami begged, landing on his shoulder. "Don't listen."

"It's alright", the boy replied. "It's just a whisper at the back of my mind. I can't even recognize the words."

It made sense. Hawk Moth's control over Picture Perfect was limited to begin with, and he had stretched himself thin for days, with several Akumas out in the wild. Every victim released - be it Morning Rooster, Plot Bunny or even Feathertail - would have taken a toll on him. He was lucky to be able to maintain a transformation, by that point. Then again, with his magic and Makko's, he had ample reserves.

"It's my father's voice", Chat Noir choked out. "I don't know how I didn't recognize it before. Who doesn't recognize their dad's voice?"

Tikki flew up to his face and waited for him to look at her.

"That's because it might be the same voice but it isn't the same _person_ ", she reminded him. "It's not your father you are hearing."

The boy pursed his lips.

"I don't know. Maybe I'm just not used to his voice sounding like he has _emotions_."

She nuzzled against his cheek, lacking human arms to give him an actual hug. He relaxed a little and handed her a cookie. She took it, grateful, and landed on his knees.

"We will free him", she said. "I need a little more energy to transform Marinette, then we will free _you_ , then we will find him, and help him."

"Who says he _can_ be helped?" the boy asked. "Who says he _wants_ to be?"

It broke Tikki's heart.

"What happened to Hawk Moth's previous hosts?" he asked. "Where _they_ freed? Did they forget everything and go back to their normal lives? Because you were all quite happy to erase your heroes memories and to go your own way. You, and Plagg, and… Zetta. You didn't look for Argus. You didn't try to help. You didn't think there was anything to rescue, did you?"

The accusation was harsh and not unwarranted, even if Adrien had it wrong. Mostly.

"We did not know who he _was_ ", Tikki explained. "The name he had given Clover was fake, and there was no way to track him through magic. Clover had two young children, and Queen Bee had a daughter, and Zetta and Waspp wanted them safe. The Ladybug of that time stayed behind and _searched_ , but there was nothing to connect Argus _nor_ Aricia to their civilian identities."

"Well Plagg obviously knew, or he wouldn't have PICKED ME, WOULD HE?"

Tikki was wondering the very same thing, but knew full well Plagg would never give a straight answer. She hesitated, which only fed Chat Noir's anger.

"He as good as told me!" he exclaimed. "'The apple couldn't fall far from the tree'! _He_ sure doesn't think there's something worth saving in my father."

He was fidgeting and playing with his ring. Tikki could not let him transform back. In the state in was in, the second he would revert to his normal self was the second the Akuma would take over. No matter his reasons and the trickery involved, Plagg could not have made a better choice picking the boy as his new Chat Noir. No other child would have resisted as well and as long to an evil spirit embedded into their soul. But he was only human, and he had his limits.

She idly wondered if she would have the time and the opportunity to break the item the Akuma had corrupted, if Chat turned into Picture Perfect. Unfortunately, she needed Ladybug for that.

Her only weapon was the truth, which the boy needed to hear regardless of the circumstances.

"It's true Hawk Moth had _some_ hosts who could not be saved, but your father is not one of them", she told him, reaching into his pocket to take his mother's pendant and hold it in front of him. "They were warlords, pirates, gangsters, and they _never_ cared about anyone but themselves." - She swayed a little so the pendant would too. - "They didn't mourn the people they lost, and they would never, ever have have given a young heroine a memento to snap them out of Hawk Moth's control. Such an item would not have _existed_. They were people with no heart who went to Hawk Moth with their minds clear."

He listened to her with wide eyes, and reached for the pendant when she stopped talking. He touched it, tentatively, then took it, played with it for an instant, and carefully put it back into his pocket.

"There's something I need to check", he exclaimed, jumping to his feet and racing to the window.

"Wh-"

"I'll be right across the street!" he said, opening the window and jumping out.

"CHAT NOIR! COME BACK!" she shrieked, trying to go after him.

"Across the street" meant "his home". She flew as fast as she could to catch up, but she was too weak and he was too quick. She turned back and raced through the walls to get to Marinette.

###


	30. Chapter 30

Marinette ran to the main hall, frantically trying to come up with excuses for her state of dishevelment, her presence at the Grand Paris, and the whole "Nino being present during the fight with Plot Hole", and probably "her having never set foot into Nino's home, let alone slept in it".

She found the hallway crowded, with Alix's father and brother talking to her next to the door. Her father was all but yelling, his hands on her shoulders, but he looked more worried than angry. A few feet away, Alya was hugging her mother, and her sisters were hugging her, in a warm pile of love. Her father was discussing with a woman in a white suit, whom Marinette could only see from the back. Nino was talking excitedly to a man who looked exactly like him, with twenty years added.

She spotted her parents, who were anxiously questioning two cops.

"Mom!" she called. "Dad!"

Not a second later, her father was lifting her up in the air and hugging her.

"My god, Marinette, look at you", he said, softly dropping her back on the floor. "What happened to you?"

"I, we, ah, we were going to Alya, and there was an Akuma attack, and I fell with all the soap, I…"

Her mother, who had wrapped an arm around her, looked at her in disbelief. Her father frowned.

"Are you sure that's all? You can tell us _anything_."

Marinette hesitated. She did. Adrien knew, Alya knew, _everyone_ knew. She could as well tell her mom and dad. She wanted to. She wanted to curl up in their arms and never let go. She wrapped herself around Sabine and held her as close as she could.

"It's a long story. It's such a long, long story", she murmured.

Her father checked his watch.

"Well, we should get home to discuss it", he cut in. "We don't have the time to stand around. I have a big order due in six hours and I have to turn the oven on in thirteen minutes precisely, so let's hurry. You can tell us as I work."

Marinette blinked at that unexpected reaction.

"An… Order?"

It made no sense. Her father always put his family first, and would have thrown all notion of timeliness away if he had thought her safety had been threatened.

"Twelve minutes", her mother corrected. "Let's go, let's go! We don't have much time!"

She pushed Marinette away and grabbed her wrist with an iron grip to pull her towards the doors. The teenager stumbled, both confused and exhausted.

"I… I can catch up", she said. "Let me just say goodbye to my friends?"

"Don't be difficult! You will see them at school."

Now, that was _absolutely_ strange. Her parents were never that cold, and Marinette was used to an entirely different set of priorities from them. She frowned, studying their faces. Their single-mindedness was more than suspicious. They were tense. Her father was sweating.

"I'm not walking home!" Alix yelled. "Are you insane? Have you seen my feet?"

Marinette turned just in time to see her raise a foot. She was not wearing shoes, and removed her filthy socks, uncovering ink-stained skin covered in sores.

"I can spend the night here and clean up or maybe you can bring me shoes but I'm not _walking_ ", she told her father, arms crossed.

"Now, Alix, don't be nonsensical. I can carry you to the car, but we must be home in twenty-five minutes and you must be in bed in thirty-five. Thirty four", mister Kubdel amended, looking at his watch.

Nino and his father were gone. Alya and her parents were leaving, which was strange, considering their apartment was currently filled with cops.

The hotel employees were leaving one by one. The woman in a white suite was conversing with two policemen, who were checking their own watches. Marinette could not see the woman's face. She still had her back turned. All the teenager could see was that she was using a tablet and reading what she saw aloud. The cops were smiling and nodding, and quietly walked to the exit when she turned the tablet off, holding it against her side.

Something was off.

"Let's go, Marinette!", her father exclaimed, lifting her up and carrying her out.

He threw her over his shoulder, walking straight to the doors. She had to fight the reflex of kicking her way out of his hold and to salto away, which was Ladybug's first instinct when restrained.

She saw the woman in the white suit quietly enter the elevator, and brush a red bang out of her eyes as the doors closed.

It was Nathalie Sancoeur. Her glasses had been replaced by a red butterfly-shaped mask.

Marinette _did_ kick her way out of her father's arms.

###

Sunny Weather was nodding off. She had, actually, nodded off twenty minutes earlier, and the cops around her were not sure if they could wake her up or not, so her memory consisted of various episodes of being startled awake and telling herself she had to watch the stupid door until Ladybug arrived to free Plot Hole from her Akuma.

She woke up to a wonderful silence, barely disturbed by the two policemen speaking in hushed tones next to her. The kitchen was quiet. The kitchen was very quiet. The kitchen was _too_ quiet.

The fridge was not buzzing.

###

Alya didn't like the way things were going at all. Her parents were dragging her away. They had not been _literally_ dragging her away until she had started trying to return to the hotel, at which point the "literally" had started. So she feigned compliance.

She had seen Nino escape his father a moment before.

She carefully, carefully, carefully rummaged through her mother's purse to get her phone out. Still carefully, carefully, carefully, she called Nino's number.

An instant later, she was jumping out of his phone and landing next to the fountain of the Place du Chatelet.

"Okay, something is very very wrong here, let's go back inside and find Marinette", she said, turning to Nino.

He was hiding behind the fountain and dragged her next to him, pointing at the door of the Grand Paris.

Marinette's parents were walking out of the hotel, checking their watches, but looking back with increasing panic.

"They have no choice but to go", Nino announced. "Mister Agreste's assistant told my dad we were scheduled at the dentist in thirty minutes and he just went crazy saying we had to go."

"That was Miss Sancoeur? She's evilized?"

"I think so. I couldn't see her face, not even for a second."

"So we wait until they are out of sight and we race in?"

Nino nodded. They waited thirty seconds and saw Theo run out. It didn't look like running was a common activity for him, because he was panting and looked about to die. This after ten steps out of the hotel. He trotted to the gates of the Agreste's home.

Nino and Alya looked at each other, watched him sneak through the gates, and followed him.

"Ohgodyou'rehere", he gasped as soon as he saw them. "There's… Problem."

"There's an Akuma. We know."

"Yes. Yes, Plot Hole's free", the man announced. "And there's a second one. Ladybug and Sunny Weather are on it. That's okay. The kid says she has it under control. I was to… Chat Noir, catch Chat Noir, who came here alone. Tikki sent me."

"Alone…" Alya repeated.

"Here?" Nino finished.

They both swore and tried to run into the building. The door was locked, but a window was open, and it took one bubble for Nino and Alya to fly up to it and to sneak into the mansion, entering Adrien's bedroom. They didn't give Theo a chance to follow them. The sculptor gestured to them from downstairs, and Nino gestured back, trying to tell him they would be fine. He pretended not to understand the young man was furious. Then, he pushed the window closed and listened to the silence.

Alya took a deep breath.

"What if Hawk Moth his here?" her friend whispered.

"All the more reason to find Chat right now", she replied.

They tiptoed out of the room and listened for any sound. They heard scratching and torn cardboard in a room close by.

Nino put a hand in front of Alya and took a few steps towards that door, leaning against the wall and taking a slow peek through the half open door. There was a faint light inside, as far as Alya could see, but Nino was still blocking her way and it was not the moment to protest loudly. She just pressed herself against his back and tried to take a look too. She felt him relax.

He pushed the door entirely open and walked in, taking her hand to make her follow.

They had entered another bedroom, as large as Adrien's but much more spartan, with undecorated furniture and orderly bookshelves where every book of a series was from the same edition and lined up perfectly. Chat Noir was sitting on the floor, next to a large open cupboard and a bedside lamp he had put down next to him, and was making a mess. Sheets of paper and torn box were spread all around him, on the pristine carpet.

Alya closed the door. Nino walked to the young hero and crouched next to him. The blogger joined them.

"What are you doing, dude?" Nino murmured. "We shouldn't be here, it's dangerous."

"I needed to remember", Chat Noir announced, running a claw along the tape that closed yet another box. "Relax. He's not here. I would know."

His best friend took a deep breath and sat down. Alya carefully moved some of the sheets of paper so she could do the same.

"Remember?" Nino asked, looking at the mess around them.

"I wanted to see what kind of fetish Hawk Moth could have used, but… my memories of my dad… They are foggy", Chat explained, picking an envelope filled with photographs up.

He was smiling.

"Now, my mom? I remember well. My _father_? Even in the same memories, it's all… A mess. And Tikki said they had wiped their heroes memories. So, it made me think it wasn't an accident. Look."

He handed two pictures to Nino and one to Alya. They showed a couple, a much younger (but already inscrutable) Gabriel Agreste and a woman who could only be Adrien's mother. She looked exactly like him.

The two teenagers looked at the photos, not knowing exactly what they were supposed to see.

"He's wearing the Miraculous", Adrien explained, still digging through the box. "She has it as an hairpin on some pictures, and he wears it on his tie, look."

Alya gasped. Of course, she had not known what Hawk Moth's Miraculous was supposed to look like, but she supposed "pink butterfly" more than fitted the bill. Nino took a closer look and muttered a "wow".

Chat Noir smiled, serene.

"I didn't remember. Make a ten step plan, follow the steps… You can do anything", he said, more to himself than to them. "HAHA!"

He extracted a pile of sketches of the box he had just opened. It was quality paper, and the first thing Alya saw on the sheets was a Kwami. It was pink, with tiny wings and a spiral on the forehead. It was a good drawing, with no signs of hesitations or mistakes. Right next to it, there was a pink potato with a blurb on the top and sticks for arms. That, and hesitant, twisted letters: "M-A-K-R-O".

Chat Noir put the drawing on the floor, in front of him. The second sheet had more children drawings next to more professional art. He put it down next to the first, and kept placing the sketches in a circle around him, until he was totally surrounded by sketches and scribblings of kwamis, butterflies, the odd turtle, and women in fashionable dresses.

He perked up, grinning, and took a deep breath.

"Well, time to talk to Plagg", he exclaimed, removing his ring.

###


	31. Chapter 31

Plagg, Adrien realized, never quite showed his true face, which was the face of a very old, very angry cat.

As soon as the Kwami reappeared, after Adrien's transformation, he landed on the floor, ears flattened and eyes reduced to shining slits.

"Put the ring back on", he ordered.

"We need to talk", Adrien replied, trying to ignore Hawk Moth's voice in his head.

It had been a whisper but it was growing louder already. Picture Perfect was definitely more vulnerable to their enemy's influence. The boy looked down at his childhood drawings, and to his father's sketches, side by side on dozens of sheets of paper. He had to focus on that.

"We don't _need_ to do anything but transform you back", his Kwami hissed.

"YES WE DO!" Picture Perfect yelled.

He forced himself to calm down and, when he spoke again, it was in a quiet tone.

"We need to. Now, you might not _want_ to, but you have a _lot_ to explain. You _knew_ all along my father was Argus, didn't you? And you didn't tell us! You didn't even tell Tikki."

Plagg's ears twitched. He growled.

"So I did. What does it matter? You and the tiny human girl were still learning to fight, you weren't about to go after him."

Alya grabbed him by the scruff of the neck.

"Be. NICE!" she snapped.

For a second or so, Plagg was stunned. Then, he looked so thoroughly offended that he forgot to be angry.

"Let me go", he ordered, flailing. "Let me…"

He remembered he did not _have_ to be material, so he turned to black sparkles and reappeared a few inches above her hand, huffing.

Adrien took a deep breath.

Hawk Moth's voice was clear, by now, so he pretended that the words he heard were mismatched syllables that did not form words, let alone threats. He felt darkness stir in him, he saw a glint of pink light, out of the corner of his eye, but he tried to contain it. Nino, with as much stealth as he could, reached for the corrupted Eephone in his pocket.

Picture Perfect grabbed his wrist and twisted his arm so hard Nino wailed in pain.

Adrien jumped back, horrified.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry", he spluttered, heart beating so hard he could hear his own pulse.

Nino moaned and moved back.

"Shouldn't have tried that", he muttered.

"Put the ring back on, Adrien", Plagg said, this time in a tired voice. "You're only endangering yourself, and them."

"Not yet", the blond replied, gesturing to all of the sketches and photographs he had dug up, mementos of happier times. "I want to know what happened to my parents. I _need_ to know, because we must know what item Hawk Moth is hiding it so we can destroy it."

"Do you think if I had any idea of what he had corrupted, we'd be here right now?" the Kwami replied. "Whatever it is, Argus kept it hidden when the previous Chat Noir fought him. I don't know."

"It could be the cane", Adrien said.

Plagg just shook his head, landing in front of him.

"That's his sword, the equivalent to your staff or Ladybug's yo-yo."

The young hero pursed his lips and tried to figure out what his father valued, what kind of item he would have been carrying when Hawk Moth had possessed him. His wedding ring, maybe? Something related to Adrien's mother? It was hard to say without knowing how the events had unfolded. Had his father been home, or outside, at the hospital where his mother had been brought after her "accident"? Had the possession happened on the day of her death, or later?

"You have to tell me everything, Plagg. We have to find out. We have to go after him _now_."

"Why do you insist on listening to old stories that will _only_ make you miserable?" the Kwami exclaimed. "It is not going to help you!"

"YOU DON'T GET TO DECIDE", Adrien said, barely relaxing when both Nino and Alya put their hands on his shoulders. "It's my father! It's my family. I _get_ to hear the truth."

Plagg hissed, seething.

"What is there to know? She was injured. Argus was out of the country. By the time he arrived, it was too late to help. Stop asking questions you don't need the answers to."

Alya grabbed him by the scruff again, lifting him up to the level of her eyes. When she spoke, her voice had gone past impulsive anger and straight into cold rage.

"You don't get to be cruel, do you hear me?"

Plagg freed himself, tail waving.

"It was a _bad_ time and there is no point talking about it at all", he explained, hovering away, glaring at Alya to avoid Adrien's eyes. "But suit yourselves. Makko is a time-traveler. She and Gabriel went back to try and stop the robbery. _Twice_. But she can only go back so far, and 'so far' meant 'after Aricia had been injured'. And then it got worse."

Nino swore. He wrapped his arm around Adrien's shoulders. The blond stared at his Kwami, horrified. He was not that familiar with time-travelers, but he had fought one. He knew how _her_ powers had worked, and had an horrifying suspicion. All of a sudden, he regretted pushing for answers.

"Oh", he murmured. "Oh."

Plagg sighed and climbed on his knees.

"Makko can go back farther, but it has a cost", the Kwami said in his softest voice.

"Like Timebreaker."

The black cat nodded.

"And your father… asked Clover to go back with Makko. He was ready to let himself, well…" - The Kwami shook his head. - "Anyway, Clover refused. And then so did Chat Noir, because they both knew the chances of succeeding were too slim, and there was no point losing Argus too. They were grieving, Makko and him. They weren't thinking clearly. Someone had to do it for them."

Adrien felt wetness seep under Picture Perfect's mask. He shuddered, vaguely aware of his friends muttering both swears and comforting words, and wrapping themselves around him.

He closed his eyes. Hawk Moth's voice was louder. His ears were ringing.

"Father blamed you for not trying", he whispered.

"They both did. Makko screamed herself hoarse trying to convince Zetta going back would work. Argus… Argus was never one to put his feelings into words unless Aricia extracted them from him. All of that to say he slammed the door into our faces, left, and came back possessed."

Adrien heard himself gasp. Alya pressed herself against his back, arms wrapped around his shoulders.

He tried to focus.

Hawk Moth was laughing.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up", Adrien yelled, covering his ears.

That didn't work, but thinking of what he had just learned did the trick. The voice quieted enough for him to ignore it. He turned to Plagg.

"Thanks for telling me", he said. "Thank you."

The Kwami snorted, looking away in annoyance.

"Now are you going to put that ring back so I can help you keep your mind in one piece? It's not because you are surprisingly apt at resisting that Akuma that you should keep doing it alone."

"It's alright, Plagg", Adrien replied, slipping his Miraculous on. "The Akuma targeted me because I was angry at my father, didn't it? I thought he had no heart. Turns out I should give him a chance, because he _did_. So… I'm not angry", he continued, raising his hand and looking at the ring. "I'm determined. We're going after Hawk Moth."

###

Two Akumas at once, one of them very strong, the other very annoying. No Chat Noir.

Ladybug had seen better days, but she had even less patience left than she had energy. At least she was not alone, though Sunny Weather was as exhausted as she was, and Alix… Well, as far as Marinette knew, Alix was bluffing her way into a one-to-one fight against a superpowered executive assistant. Her classmate didn't seem to mind the state of her feet now: she was kicking bare feet and punching with bare hands, without ever touching Nathalie Sancoeur, who was desperately dodging her every touch. Maybe Alix _did_ have magic, considering how much she scared her opponent. Every now and then, when the woman managed to put some distance between herself and Alix, she swiped her tablet and attempted to give the teenager orders.

"Your schedule indicates that you should be arriving school in fifteen minutes", she said in a monotonous tone, her face showing no expression whatsoever.

Alix had expressions enough for two, and had settled for grinning defiance.

"Oh, that's cute, you want to tell me what to do with my _time_. Sorry to _break_ it to you, but it's not gonna work."

She definitely had superpowers. The terrible humor was a dead giveaway.

In any case, she was keeping Nathalie busy. It meant Ladybug and Sunny Weather were free to fight the invisible and very talkative Plot Hole. Marinette kept sending her yo-yo in every possible direction and hitting empty air.

"She's vulnerable to cold and water", she reminded Aurore after they both nearly got stabbed by an ink spike. "Do you think you can manage that?"

"I don't know! I only ever manage wind blasts."

"You disappoint me, Ladybug!" Plot Hole clamored, from somewhere on the left of the hallway. "They said your resourcefulness was unequaled, but I find your creativity somehow lacking!"

Marinette was fuming. She was tired. Her parents were probably still enslaved, and working on some imaginary order, at home, because mister Agreste's assistant had told them to. She was worried sick. She was in a terrible, terrible mood.

"LUCKY CHARM", she yelled.

A large funnel dropped into her hands.

"What the…"

She had to jump to dodge a hail of ink balls. _Funnel._ Another salto. _Funnel, funnel, funnel, liquid, bottle_ _…_

She spotted a vase in the corner of the room.

"SUNNY WEATHER!" she called, running to said corner. "The forecast for today is 'clear skies' with localized downpours in the south-east!"

Aurore, who was hovering above the ground and twirling to dodge a constant hail of gooey black projectiles, gaped for a second.

" _Rain_?" she exclaimed. "How am I supposed to make _rain_? There's no wat… Oh. Okay, wish me luck!"

Ladybug raised a hand, fingers crossed, and started shooting her yo-yo at every moving shape she spotted, hoping to slow Plot Hole enough to let Aurore figure out if her powers allowed for rain manipulation.

The ink was sucked off the floor and formed a dark cloud close to the ceiling. Plot Hole entirely vanished, but that was not important, as the cloud was moving towards Ladybug's corner. It jerked about, twirled and moved back, as the akumaized writer tried to will it back to her. However, Aurore was winning.

The cloud stopped right over Marinette, and dissolved into pouring rain. She held the funnel over the vase, and made sure that every drop of ink flowed straight into the vase. She felt the ceramic turn cold, and hoar frost formed all around the vase. She heard ice crackling inside it.

Sunny Weather gave her and exhausted smile and fell to the ground.

"No, no", Plot Hole exclaimed. "That's inconceivable! You can't defeat me. Not a mere duo of incompetent children! Not…"

"Sooooo much talking", Chat Noir's voice cut in, from the main entrance.

He had just burst in, with a panting Theo, a trembling Miss Wifi, and Nino, who looked dirty but perfectly normal. He took one look at the room, raced to Marinette, and stole a kiss.

"Cataclysm", he whispered as soon as their lips separated.

And he punched straight through the vase. The solid block of iced ink fell to the floor and shattered, forcing the Akuma out.

Ladybug's yo-yo caught it a second later.

###

Chat Noir helped the confused young woman who had been Plot Hole up, smiling to her.

"Hey there. I think you've had a long, long week. What about we send you home?" he said, in his kindest voice.

She blinked at him, looking confused behind her heavy black eyeliner.

"I can't seem to recall what I was doing. It's so late! What in the world happened?"

"Let's say you had an adventure worth writing about. Can't tell you now, but I'll drop by your place in a few days if you want explanations", he promised with a wink. "Something tells me you'll find the story… Inspiring. How does that sound?"

She looked at him, then at Ladybug, gasped, and nodded. He smiled again, and escorted her out, to the closest policemen.

Then he raced back in, finding a panting Marinette (freshly untransformed) sitting against the wall, an Aurore Borell who was apparently napping on the tiled floor. Nino and Alya were crouching next to Marinette, checking on her. As for Theo, he was looking at the shining white butterfly hovering around him. It landed on the young artist's hand, and sank into it. A pink light twirled around him. He blinked and looked down to see himself turn into Copycat.

"Hey, look, I'm you again!" he exclaimed, waving at Chat Noir.

At that same time, Adrien's ring beeped for one last time, and his hero costume vanished, leaving him in his _other_ costume.

He grinned and clicked his tongue, putting a hand on his hip.

"Say hello to Picture _Purr_ fect!"

Everyone groaned. Even Marinette, whom he thought was his girlfriend, or something of the sort, at least he hoped, anyway they had kissed, and he had thought she would like the puns a little more. It was a brilliant pun, too.

Plagg landed on his shoulder.

"Glad to see you're you", he muttered, bumping his head against Adrien's chin in something that could only be recognized as a nuzzle by someone very well acquainted with the ways of tiny feline destruction gods.

"Alix", Marinette gasped. "Where's Alix?"

###


	32. Chapter 32

_Have I replied to the comments? POSSIBLY NOT. Most likely not. Don't remember. I'm doing better with the comments thing on AO3 where I can see my answers._

 _I'm very grateful for all the comments, thank you so much!_

* * *

"Retreat", Hawk Moth ordered, straight into Schedule Conflict's head. "Plot Hole is losing her fight."

Schedule Conflict dodged yet another punch from the pink haired girl with the lethal touch, and wished her new abilities could work on unruly teenagers with time-bending powers. Nathalie sincerely thought making a deal with the devil should have allowed you a smoother ride. "Everyone will follow your instructions" should have meant _"_ _everyone_ will follow your instructions". _This_ was why Hawk Moth had never won a battle since he had started attacking Paris. He couldn't even do "evil" correctly.

Escaping Alix Kubdel was not very difficult per se: the child _did_ have a lethal touch, and not about to use it on innocent victims, so all it took to slow her down was to add some passerby into her schedule. "Grab the girl". "Block her way". "Stand in front of the stairs for twenty-five minutes". The girl recoiled as soon as someone took a step towards her.

That was how Schedule Conflict managed to reach the hotel's back door, walk out, and stop a car.

"Your schedule says you should be speeding towards Rivoli street right now, sir", she told the driver as she sank into the passenger seat.

She slammed the door just before Alix Kubdel could catch up with her.

"Don't you _dare_ running away!" the child yelled, trying to open the door.

She held on to the handle as the car started moving, but had to let go after a few steps. Schedule Conflict leaned to the side so she could keep an eye on her, to make sure she had not climbed on the roof of the car or something equally stupid. Thankfully, it looked like the teenager was only having a tantrum.

"Retreat successful", she announced, looking down at her tablet. "I will be back in fifteen minutes."

"I don't know where Rivoli street _is_ ", the driver exclaimed, panicking.

How was that even an issue in the time of GPS navigation? Obedience, Schedule Conflict realized, did not go hand in hand with competence. She swiped her tablet and projected a holographic map of Paris on the windscreen.

Hawk Moth didn't answer.

###

Alix had been fighting an "Akuma".

The Akuma was Nathalie. Marinette had tried to break the news softly, but the truth was Adrien was aware of her transformation already. Nino and Alya had told him everything on their way out of the mansion. It meant he had two family members to save, not just one. One had been bad enough. There would be hell to pay. He was sick and tired of Hawk Moth, sick and tired of people being taken over by evil, sick and tired.

The voice in his head had gone silent, the dark claws inside his chest were barely brushing against his soul. All that was left to do was break the Eephone and purge the Akuma, but that prospect…

It terrified Picture Perfect for reasons he could not understand.

Well, saving Alix was the priority.

He ran from corridor to corridor, following a trail of employees and customers busy barring the way, on Schedule Conflict's orders. Copycat followed him, and even managed to run past him after a perfectly executed double salto over a wall of people. Adrien had to admit Theo was not such a bad copycat. He could actually move (unlike his normal self, who had nearly died of an heart attack somewhere between the Agreste's home and the Bourgeois hotel).

They burst out of the Grand Paris through the back door, frantic, hoping they had been fast enough.

They heard yelling.

"IF I HAD MY ROLLERS YOU WOULD NOT BE GETTING AWAY YOU STUPID FOUR EYED ICE QUEEN", she was screaming at the top of her lungs, kicking a trash can. "AND ANYWAY WHAT KIND OF SUPERVILLAIN HAS A 'NAUGHTY SECRETARY' THEME?" - Copycat choked at those words. Alix kept shouting. - "WHAT'S NEXT? THE 'ACCOUNTANTRUM'? 'HR MAN'?"

"Alix!" Adrien exclaimed, running to her to hug her.

She squealed and kneed him in the stomach.

###

Schedule Conflict walked into her apartment, locking the door behind her. The lights were on in the kitchen, and she could hear the faint, chiming voice of the Kwami. When Nathalie entered the kitchen, she found Gabriel sitting at the table, blankly staring at a shattered smartphone.

He turned to her and she met his eyes. She felt nothing at all.

"I know it does not matter to you anymore", he told her, "but Adrien is breaking out of the Akuma's control."

It meant nothing to her. She looked around to locate the Kwami, and found it sitting in the fridge, eating strawberry jam straight out of the jar.

Gabriel's chair shook as he tried to stand, failed, and stopped moving entirely. A violet, butterfly-shaped stain was spreading on his chest.

"I'd like to apologize in advance", he murmured. "As soon as he returns, he will try to enrage you again. He has little power over people who don't feel, as you have likely gathered. I hoped you'd be immune."

She looked at her tablet and wrote that down in a document she saved as "gabriel_agreste-personal_ ".

She felt something: she felt anger, and - as always - it was directed at him.

With a swipe of the finger that sent a flash of light from her screen to his face, she hypnotized him.

"I see here you are to spend the next ten minutes answering my questions truthfully", she pretended.

Gabriel's eyes glazed over. He nodded.

"Why did you always insist that I was to be the one to take care of your son?" she asked, her rage burning lukewarm in the pit of her stomach.

"Because, when you walk with a demon on your shoulder, the last thing you want is to surround yourself with people who can fall prey to it. You were the best candidate because - no pun intended - you are heartless."

"I am not", Schedule Conflict pointed out, her voice unfeeling, her mind squarely seated in the realm of bitter disappointment.

"I know that now."

"Have you ever cared about my opinion on the matter?"

"Yes."

"Were you aware I disapproved of your decisions about my career?"

"Yes."

"Yet you kept me in a position you knew I wished to leave?"

"Your opinion was irrelevant. My priority was to provide Adrien with a caretaker who would not be vulnerable to Hawk Moth."

"In doing so, you made _him_ vulnerable and allowed for him to become Picture Perfect, do you know that?"

"Yes."

"What are your feelings about that?" she asked.

She was not interested in the answer. She wanted to drive the nail in and to make him suffer a little. Just as he had paved the road for his son to be possessed, he had ensured she would be too.

Gabriel stared into the distance.

"I don't know", he declared. "I-"

The Kwami flew out of the fridge and spiraled into the air, sucked into the butterfly stain on the man's chest. An instant later, he had transformed back into Hawk Moth.

###

"I know the situation seems _cat_ astrophic", Copycat told the mayor, wrapping an arm around his shoulders, "and I know you can't make heads or _tails_ of it right now, but your response has to be ade _cat_. You can see it _claw_ as day: those _purr_ children need your help. _I_ need your help."

"Tell me I'm not that bad", Adrien slash Picture Perfect whispered to Marinette as they watched Theo take charge.

"You're not _that_ bad", she replied with Ladybug's sassy tone.

"No but on a scale of one to Theo, where would you put me?"

"We will need food: sandwiches, warm meals, as much cookies and cheese as you can gather", Copycat was telling André Bourgeois.

"Shoooooooes", Alix suggested with the discretion of a sports commentator armed with a megaphone.

"Shoes for the charming young spitfire", Theo said. "A phone for my favorite re _purr_ ter. Did I mention cheese? Also, it is of the ut _meo_ st importance for several policemen to be sent to check on all of my friend's families, as their parents were mind-controlled by our op _paw_ nent."

"I… Of course", the Mayor said. "Now, about your, er, friends. I might be mistaken but I think one of them is a supervillain. Several, of them, actually."

"ENTIRELY DIFFERENT PEOPLE", Alya yelled.

Mister Bourgeois hesitantly gestured towards Picture Perfect.

"My good sir", Copycat said. "Do you think you are more qualified than I am to say who is, and who is _not_ , a supervillain?"

"Well, no, of course, but…"

"As I was saying, we need a place to rest. Could you please help us with that?"

"I don't know, it's-"

"This is a hotel", Copycat pointed out. "I'm sure you can figure it out."

Ten minutes later, they were ushered into the royal suite. It was gigantic, yet not nearly as big as Chloé's bedroom.

Copycat was carrying Aurore, who was sleeping soundly and drooling all over his arm. Marinette was holding Adrien's hand. Their friends were hovering behind them, all of them in a fairly zombie-like state.

"Interneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet", Alya shouted, throwing herself face first on one of the beds with her freshly borrowed smartphone.

"I have no idea how many phones she went through today", Alix commented, wriggling her toes in sandals that had once belonged to a much younger Chloé, "but who thought it was a good idea to give her a new one?"

Nino went to sit next to Alya, who was lying arms above her head and chin buried into the mattress.

"I'd usually agree with you, but I think we need all of the advantages we can get right now."

Adrien watched Tikki jump out of Marinette's bag. The Kwami was holding a cookie (she has been provided with three platters worth of pastry), and her face was stained with chocolate.

"Magic _can_ be dangerous, but you have proved that you can be trusted with your powers, all of you. And", she concluded in a much softer voice, "you have been entrusted with them for a good reason."

Alix dropped on a sofa, and was the only one to question the Kwami's words.

"And that reason would be?"

Plagg popped out of Marinette's bag and landed on Adrien's shoulder. His hostility had faded, but he was still tense, despite the air of bored indifference he was putting on. Adrien reached for him and scratched his neck.

"Makko never picks anyone without a good reason", the black cat replied. "Puny human boy over there is Adrien's best friend. Teleporter girl is his next closest friend. Sunny Weather is a fan. Copycat can and _has_ tricked Chat Noir's enemies to protect him. And you", he told Alix, "I don't know, I guess she thought you'd be useful."

Adrien saw the baleful glares Nino and Alya threw at his Kwami, and decided that was enough talking. He grabbed a piece of cheese from a platter on the closest table, and smashed it into Plagg's face.

Then he realized the Kwami had just said everything was about him, and regretted stuffing Camembert down his throat. The boy turned to Tikki instead.

"Is… Is that what you think?"

He remembered all the drawings he had found, the potato-shaped, stick-winged images of Makko he had drawn as a child. He did not remember ever seeing the pink Kwami. His mind had been wiped clear of her, just like all memories the butterfly Miraculous attached to his father's collar and a good part of his father's image with them. He wondered how they had interacted, before his mother's death.

Tikki flew up to him, bumped their foreheads together, then landed on his shoulder too.

"There is a lot we do not know yet, but Makko is my sister, and I can say I am absolutely sure of this. She cared about you, and she still does."

Adrien swallowed hard, trembling a little.

"We'll free her", he promised.

Copycat slammed the door with one foot, dropped Aurore Borell on one of the beds, grabbed a few cookies and pushed them into Adrien's hands.

"It's all very nice and sweet but you are all going to sleep", he said, handing the last biscuit to Tikki. "You. Recover. Free the kid. YOU!", he exclaimed, turning to Nino.

"Me?" Nino replied.

Theo walked to him, lifted him up, and moved him to another bed (one where the girl he clearly fancied was not). Marinette was shoved next to her best friend. Adrien was shoved next to his best friend. Copycat turned to Alix, who raised a hand.

"Try to touch me and I'll make you vanish of the face of the earth, like, really."

Theo took a step back.

"Okay then."

He cleared his throat and whirled to Alya.

"You. Less internet. More laying your sleepy head."

"I'm just checking the comments on my blog!" the girl protested. "People come to me with information about Akuma attacks now!"

"She has a point", Marinette said, glaring and crossing her arms.

Copycat tried tried to outglare her. As Chat Noir could have told him, one could not outglare Ladybug. She had steel-clad will.

"Fine, fine", the artist replied. "She has ten minutes."

"Uhwontneedfiveminutes", Alya blurted out, paling. "Dudes, there's… There's a weird comment on my latest post."

She showed the screen to Marinette, whose eyes went wide.

"Weird comment?" Adrien asked, joining them.

Alya nodded.

"It's not complete. But… It says 'Makko h'."

He froze. The list of people who knew Makko's name was very short.

He was willing to bet the comment didn't come from Zetta or the other Kwamis.

###


	33. Chapter 33

Tikki swallowed a cookie and glared at Plagg, and swallowed a cookie, and glared at Plagg, and swallowed a cookie, and…

"I know you are angry", the black cat whispered, from his seat atop a stinky old cheese on a platter on the table farthest from the beds. "You can stop shooting daggers at me."

"You are horrible with Chat Noir", she whispered back, with a worried look towards the child.

He was lying next to Nino in one of the beds but, while his best friend was sleeping soundly, Adrien was not about to sleep. Without the Akuma's powers, he might have been lucky enough to pass out, but the magic was filling him with endless energy. He was trying to rest. However, he was clearly thinking of his father and Nathalie, and trying to decipher the cryptic "Makko h" comment Alya had seen on her website.

Tikki could not help with that. If Gabriel had been the one to leave that note, there was no way to know. What the rest of the sentence had been would remain a mystery.

The one thing Tikki could help with was getting rid of the Akuma. She swallowed another cookie. It had been centuries since she had been that exhausted.

"I'm horrible with everyone", Plagg said, sniffing a piece of cheese. "What is your point?"

Theo, who had been sitting next to them and kept watch while the children were sleeping, decided he had heard enough.

"You know full well what her point is", he murmured, smashing Plagg's very squishy head against the table.

Tikki was not one to condone unnecessary violence, but that felt very satisfying to watch. It wasn't like it could hurt Plagg or anything, anyway. It just made him look silly. And annoyed.

"Sincerely, you act as if you were still a century old kitten", she commented when he gave Theo a scathing look. "The boy deserves better."

"Well then you should have made him Ladybug", Plagg retorted, focusing on his cheese again.

Tikki sighed. There would be no changing Plagg. No amount of criticism would do. There was no excuse for the way he behaved, especially not towards a boy as damaged and neglected as Adrien, but Plagg had always been more of a child than his chosen heroes. His way of handling trouble was very akin to a 'I can't hear you lalalalala'. He cared about 'nothing but cheese' until he was forced to think about the _rest_ , and it never, never went well. To get along with him, you had to be either a very patient person, or a mind reader.

He had his good days, like when he had accidentally destroyed the Sphinx's head, and had convinced Makko to go back in time to fix it. That had been an entertaining day. They had been so proud to have fixed it (mostly, and Plagg insisted that no cat face should have a nose) that they had paid no attention to a concerning detail: before their trip back through time, the Sphinx had been the right half of a pair.

Plagg unglued himself from the table and grabbed a slice of cheddar, then flew up to Copycat's face and called him a foolish fool. Then he called him a puny human. Then, he called him a pathetic excuse of a Rodin wannabe. Then, when it had been established that they were hissing insults at each other, he whispered to him "Before Tikki transforms Ladybug back, I want you to grab Adrien and make sure he cannot move. He will never let us take the phone away, he won't be able to help himself."

Adrien didn't stir. Copycat gave a stiff nod, and told Plagg his ego was even more overinflated than his head.

Something thumped on a window, causing Adrien to jump out of bed and Theo to run to the window, making sure to push the boy back as he did so. He opened the curtains and took a step away as several white butterflies flew through the glass of the window.

Marinette stirred, opened her eyes, and rolled out of bed, instinctively standing between Adrien and the window. Alix squealed and sat: three butterflies were crawling out of her hands, and fluttered towards the dozen that had just entered the room. Nino kept snoring as two more popped out of his left arm. Copycat transformed back into Theo, a single butterfly joining the others. Five flew out of a confused Aurore. Ten emerged from Alya, who gaped and tried to take a picture with her phone.

The butterflies coalesced in a luminous, translucent ball that slowly took Makko's shape. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out when she talked, and her body was already starting to fall apart, pale wings extracting themselves from her sides. She turned to Tikki, slamming her arms against her chest with a pleading expression, and exploded. The butterflies scattered across the room, returning to their hosts.

"W-what was that?" Alya exclaimed, fumbling for her glasses.

Most of the children were confused. The heroes had sharper reflexes.

"Plagg, _claws out!_ "

"Tikki, _spots on!_ "

It was a warning, the red Kwami thought as she spiraled into her Miraculous.

###

Copycat punched Chat Noir in the middle of the chest right at the end of his transformation, and flattened him against the floor, much to Marinette's surprise.

"Transform back", he ordered, climbing on Adrien's back to keep him pinned down. "Someone _help_ me? Take the ring?"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Chat Noir yelled, struggling to free himself.

He realized what was going on at the same time as Ladybug: she had her powers back. She could get rid of the Akuma that had turned him into Picture Perfect. His face changed. Clear panic flooded him (and Ladybug fully understood that, the dark claws buried into one's mind, the Akuma holding on for dear life). He tried to punch and kick, but Copycat kept a good hold on him.

Marinette grabbed her yo-yo. Nino took one look at her and jumped into the fray, grabbing Chat Noir's arm.

"Sorry, dude. You'll thank me later."

"I'm OKAY", Adrien yelled, trying to turn to Marinette. "Don't waste your Lucky Charm! We don't know what's coming!"

That was true, and she found she didn't care. He was not about to spend one more minute as Picture Perfect.

"I'm still helping you first", she announced, leaning down to snatch his ring.

He transformed back.

The room's TV turned on, and the red masked face of Nathalie Sancoeur appeared on the screen. It looked like she was standing in the hallway of the Grand Paris. You could see Hawk Moth standing behind her, though he was turned to the side instead of towards the camera.

"Adults of Paris", the woman said, with the cold, inexpressive voice of an automated message. "You are scheduled to sit on the edge of the closest window or balcony in sixty seconds. Once in position, please wait for instructions."

Theo stood and jumped across the suite, smashing the balcony door open.

"PHONE", Plagg screamed.

Alya swiped the screen of her phone, aiming a pink pause icon at Copycat and missing him. She ran to the balcony, transforming as she moved.

Picture Perfect threw Nino aside, rolling away from Ladybug. She wrapped him in her yo-yo's string as Sunny Weather pointed her freshly materialized umbrella at his face. Plagg circled him, trying to find the fetish, just as Marinette was.

There was a white flash.

Her muscles locked up and she watched as a terrified Picture perfect freed himself from the yo-yo string, clutching the Eephone in his hand. Half of the phone was still hidden in his sleeve.

Aurore was frozen, hovering just above the ground. Nino was paralyzed on his knees on the floor. Alix was standing between Adrien and the balcony, where she had been trying to decide which way to go.

"I'm sorry", Adrien whispered, taking his Miraculous back. "I-I can't."

"Theo Barbot", Nathalie Sancoeur's voice called. "You are scheduled to jump right now."

Ladybug heard Alya yell. There was a punching noise from the balcony. The blogger moaned and shrieked, in a long wail that ended by a "CAUGHT HIM OH MY GOD".

She ran back inside just in time to see Picture Perfect slip out. She lost no time, throwing several icons at him, but he slammed the room's door just in time to avoid them. Alya turned to Marinette and freed her with a blast of pink light.

 _How can things have gone so wrong so fast?_ Ladybug wondered, already turning to the exit.

"LUCKY CHARM", she shouted.

Two tiny red balls, roughly the size of marbles, fell from the ceiling and dropped to the floor.

"Ladybug", Nathalie Sancoeur said. "At half past six, you are to…"

Marinette grabbed the "marbles" - the _earplugs_ \- and stuffed them in her ears.

###

Alix crossed her arms, staring at the screen, where Hawk Moth was explaining that the entire adult population of Paris would jump to their death if Ladybug did not surrender her earrings, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Alya was typing the speech out on her phone, seeing how Ladybug slash Marinette couldn't hear a thing, which was probably for the best. Nino, who had wrapped a stealthy arm around the blogger's hips, was frowning at the television. Copycat (who had climbed straight back to their floor) was guarding the door, and Sunny Weather the balcony.

"What do we do?" The blogger asked, both on her phone and verbally, her eyes darting from Marinette to the TV.

"We go downstairs to bash his head in", Alix replied.

"Let me think", Marinette replied, frowning under her mask.

Her earrings beeped.

"WE GO DOWNSTAIRS TO BASH HIS HEAD IN", Alix screamed.

She was not clear on everything, but she thought she understood the gist of their situation: Marinette was Ladybug (it somehow made sense), Adrien was Chat Noir _and_ Picture Perfect (it made no sense but he had told her so himself after she had let Schedule Conflict escape, so it had to be true), and Adrien's creepy dad was Hawk Moth (it made total sense). His mean secretary was evilized (you couldn't see the difference).

Which meant they were villains, and you had to bash their heads in. It was not complicated. She had no idea why she had to spell it out.

Alya raised a hand and ran to one of the beds, emptying the contents of the nightstands' drawers.

"Ahah!" she exclaimed, grabbing a white box and throwing it at Nino.

"Free… Earplugs?" he said as he looked down at the box.

"Luxury hoooootel", Alya sing-sang.

Copycat hurried to the closest nightstand and found two other boxes.

"Okay so now that it's settled", Alix said, grabbing a platter of pastries and stuffing every croissant and biscuit into a pillowcase she handed to Ladybug. "LET'S GO."

She raced to the door, waving dismissively when Copycat called her back, ranting about earplugs and mind-control.

"Don't need 'em!" she yelled back. "It's not like I listen anyway!"

Everyone swore and yelled, but they finally got moving. It was about time: Ladybug had three minutes left.

###


	34. Chapter 34

_I can't answer the reviews right now because FFnet tells me they don't exist, much like ROUS. I'm waiting (and hoping) for them to resurface! I got the emails, though. Thank you so much everyone!_

* * *

"Am I the only one who thinks that Alix is overly optimistic thinking we can beat the final boss and his evil secretary in two minutes and a half?" Nino asked as they raced after their friends.

He was holding a earplug in one hand, ready to put them in at the first sign of Nathalie Sancoeur. They all were: there was not a single television in the staircase, so they were safe. For a minute or so. Then they would be facing Nathalie and Gabriel.

"SHE IS INSANE!" Aurore yelled.

"Yep", Alya confirmed.

Copycat said nothing, grim. Ladybug could tell he was running as fast as he could, and it wasn't as fast as Chat Noir. He tried to stay a step ahead of them, and she _knew_ he would slam the door in their faces at the bottom of the stairs. She would do the same in his position. She couldn't let him, however.

All she could think was ' _Alix is going to get killed, Alix is going to get killed, Alix is going to get killed_ '.

"I'll need phones", Alya murmured. "Anyone here still have their phones?"

They all shook their heads. Theo's was crushed somewhere at the feet of Gabriel's company headquarters. Apparently, Nino and Aurore had lost theirs. Marinette wasn't even sure hers was in her bag, and then again she was transformed and the battery was most likely dead.

"Iiiiiiii'll improvise", her best friend said.

They were in sight of the door. Theo pushed his earplugs in and jumped forward. Ladybug caught him with her yo-yo and passed over his head in a somersault.

"What are you-" he exclaimed as she shoved her own, red, spotted earplugs into her ears and burst through the door that led to the main hall.

She nearly got stabbed through the heart by a spike of black magic. She only barely managed to slide under it, and watched it pierce through the door she had just let go off. She filed "Hawk Moth's cane turns into a pointy stabby staff" under "things that would have been useful to know before a direct battle". The staff reverted into a cane, and Hawk Moth, who was talking to her, pointed it straight at her. She rolled out of the way. The cane grew again, its sharp point shattering the tile Ladybug had been sitting on.

 _That_ _'s a butterfly pin. He's literally using a butterfly pin. What is it villains and terrible senses of humor?_

Marinette tried to assess the situation.

Seven civilians in the room (cops), not including her friends. Alix was trying to dodge the three policemen who were running after her, while Schedule Conflict quietly gave them instructions. The mayor was sitting at the window, feet hanging out, but it was the ground floor. Even if he jumped, he would be fine, unless he received new orders. At least Picture Perfect was nowhere in sight. Hopefully, Adrien had fled from the impending exorcism, and would not side with Hawk Moth.

"GET THOSE GUYS AWAY FROM ME" Alix shouted, loud enough for her voice to carry through Ladybug's earplugs.

 _Easier said than done,_ the heroin thought, dodging another attack from Hawk Moth. She could not waste time with that. There was no possible way to take Hawk Moth down in the time she had, which meant she had to take Nathalie Sancoeur down, to release the citizens the mind-controller had under her spell. Still attempting to dodge Hawk Moth's stabbing attack, Ladybug aimed her yo-yo at Schedule Conflict's tablet. She missed, and the woman turned to her, eyes cold.

She said something Marinette _thankfully_ couldn't hear. Not that the teenager was that happy to be deprived of sound: she had to rely on her eyes only, and her reflexes where not nearly as good when she could not listen for the sound of incoming blows and enemies.

 _Less than two minutes, Marinette._

She had no idea what to do. Hawk Moth was bad enough on his own, just as strong as she was, and just as fast. The stabbing and cleaving were just a game so far: he had a better range and played with that advantage. He would not let her touch Nathalie, he would not let her touch _him_ , and she would be lucky to get out alive. She dropped her yo-yo, holding on to the string, and started running around the room. More importantly, she ran _around Schedule Conflict._

A swarm of Akumas dropped off the ceiling and dove towards her.

She dropped and slid on the floor, but could not have kept running.

 _One minute,_ she thought, or rather prayed to have that long.

She was as good as dead. And she couldn't just die: she had to save the others, and to _kill_ Alix.

She was trying to get back on her feet when four things happened at once: Copycat attacked Hawk Moth, Miss Wifi burst out of Schedule Conflict's tablet, Nino caught the cops who were chasing Alix in three large bubbles, and a flying Sunny Weather caught the Akumas in a tornado.

Hawk Moth dodged a kick, a knee to the stomach, a rain of punches, leisurely sidestepping away from Copycat's blows. Each sidestep brought him closer to the window. Once he got near it, and near the mayor, he grabbed Theo by the arm, and threw him across the room.

He tapped the mayor's shoulder and said _something._

They all watched as mister Bourgeois quietly stood and let Hawk Moth, who pushed his cane under the man's throat like a dagger, drag him to the elevator.

Nathalie Sancoeur's orders echoed through Marinette's minds.

 _Once in position, please wait for instructions_.

She had never said whose.

###

"I'm actually proud of you", Plagg said. "At least you are going back."

"I don't know what possessed me", Adrien said, voice strangled.

He could still remember the sheer terror that had filled him when he had realized that his corrupted phone would be taken from him. It had been like invisible chains had been wrapped around him, tying him to the fetish, and strangling him to keep him attached to it. He had not even _thought_ about resisting.

He would have to make up for that.

"An Akuma", his Kwami helpfully commented.

"PLAGG. Now is not the time for jokes."

"Excuse-me, is it _you_ telling _me_ that?"

"You're an ass", Adrien mumbled. "I like Tikki better. I'm going to trade you against her."

"Why not? Marinette sure seems to like black cats", Plagg replied.

"Ass. I don't even have to listen to you, you know?"

"Then why are you?"

"You have a point. _Claws out_."

Adrien thought he heard a "should have kept my mouth shut" as his Kwami was sucked into his ring.

A transformation later, he burst into the main hall of the hotel, and stopped dead in his tracks. Things had apparently gone wrong. Hawk Moth was nowhere in sight - which was more of a relief than he was willing to admit - but it didn't mean the situation wasn't dire.

And it was his fault.

Ladybug had used her Lucky Charm and transformed back. It would not have been _that_ bad if he had been around to protect her, but… but he had not been. She was Marinette again and, more importantly, she was under Nathalie's control. She was also attacking _Alix_. Alix, with the life-absorbing touch. Miss Wifi was running around trying to freeze Marinette, while avoiding blasts from Schedule Conflict. Sunny Weather was hovering in the middle of the room, all of her focus and energy spent maintaining a small tornado filled with Akumas that she was dragging towards the exit. Nino, who was just a normal teenager with the occasional bubble trick, was being held down by three cops. As for Copycat, he was fighting Nathalie, and _panting_.

Chat Noir did the only thing he could think of: he removed his ring and took a picture.

###

The flash nearly blinded Alya, but it did not freeze her. For a second, she panicked, trying to locate Picture Perfect, ready to fight him on her own if he had changed sides. Before she spotted him, she noticed that Sunny Weather was still moving, her tornado still whirling with a deafening noise.

Adrien was standing next to the staircase's door, his phone still raised.

He gaped at the room, gaped at Miss Wifi, then cleared his throat.

"Well, that was a flash of inspiration", he muttered.

"Are you _alright_?" she asked.

He stared at Sunny Weather. She was struggling to pull the tornado towards the exit, but she was getting there, step by step. There was not much they could do to help her.

Adrien shook himself out of it. He wiped his face, nervously tracing the borders of Picture Perfect's mask, then turned to Schedule Conflict. His shoulders sagged. He crossed the space between himself in Nathalie in slow, dragging steps, then crouched and softly pulled her tablet away from her. He looked down at the screen, taking a strangled breath. Alya ran to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

She peeked at the screen, but it only showed a calendar. It seemed to sadden Adrien to no end.

He swallowed, then smiled to Alya, gently brushing her hand off. She took a step back. Adrien joined Aurore. He crouched and smashed Schedule Perfect's tablet against the floor. The Akuma flew out, only to be swallowed by Sunny Weather's whirlwind. It was the best they could do without Ladybug, and what was one more Akuma amid fifty, anyway?

Miss Wifi joined them and helped Adrien to open the hotel's door. Aurore guided the tornado out, then up, then let it go.

Her eyes glazed over.

"I'm out", she announced, dropping face first.

They both yelled and caught her as she fell. Her clothes turned back to normal. She was fast asleep. They had to carry her inside. Once that was done, Alya turned to Adrien. He jumped away instinctively, a hand on his phone, then winced.

"Sorry", he said. "It's… It's defending itself, I think."

The insufferable flying rat that Adrien called his Kwami jumped out of his sleeve, earning an instant "you are an insufferable flying rat" glare from Miss Wifi. She had not forgotten what had happened at the mansion, and the horrible way Plagg had treated Adrien. Yet her classmate seemed to think the creature was a treasured friend. Then again, Adrien did not _know_ what being treated well was like. He was the kindest boy she knew, yet he had no examples around him. His father was under the control of Hawk Moth. Miss Sancoeur, well… was herself. Had anyone even been nice to him between his mother's death and his meeting with Nino?

"So, claws out?" the black cat asked.

"Just a second", Adrien replied.

He walked to Schedule Conflict, who had not transformed back, despite her tablet being broken. Her Akuma was still free. Picture Perfect had remained transformed and kept his powers even after Gabriel had broken the camera. It was not over. Not without Ladybug.

"Where is Tikki?" Alya exclaimed, looking around.

A biscuit bounced out of Marinette's bag.

"I'm here", the red Kwami replied, peeking out. "Just" - She swallowed. - "Recharging."

"Good", Adrien whispered, hugging miss Sancoeur.

For a few seconds, nothing happened, then Nathalie started flailing, trying to get out of his arms. Alya pointed her phone at them, trying to aim for Gabriel's assistant and not her friend's face. Adrien squeezed harder, then pulled back.

"You can do what you want", he told her. "You decide."

Alya crossed her fingers. Her friend hoped. The look on Nathalie's face remained blank, however, and they could see she was still under the Akuma's influence, even before she uttered the words "Adrien, at this hour, you…".

"Alya", the blond said.

She swiped her phone and froze Schedule Conflict.

"Claws out", Adrien whispered, his face inexpressive.

He transformed. Everyone but Nathalie started moving again.

###

"NO ONE IS GOING AFTER HAWK MOTH", Marinette yelled. "I'M GOING AFTER HAWK MOTH. IN FIVE MINUTES."

"THERE IS FIVE OF US", Alix argued back. "WE CAN MANAGE WITHOUT YOU."

Copycat wheezed, raised a hand, lowered it.

"Okay, four", the pink-haired girl amended.

Aurore let out a snore. Marinette gestured towards her. Alix groaned.

"SUNNY IS JUST FINE, WE'LL SHAKE HER A LITTLE! HAWK MOTH HAS THE MAYOR."

Tikki gulped down the amaretti she had been eating. Alix's temper stunned her. For a start, most Akuma victims were calmer. On top of that, her temper was extremely different from her father's, though he had been known to get snappy. For someone who was used to the quieter disposition of Zetta's previous chosen, a conversation with his daughter was unsettling.

"There is no point running after him when you are all weakened", Tikki commented. "I know it's frustrating, but it is much wiser to rest. He is more powerful than you can possibly imagine, and you will need both Ladybug and Chat noir to have an hope to defeat him. At the very least, you will need all five of you, at the top of your strength. There is nothing you can do right now."

"OH REALLY?" the girl yelled, waving a hand under Tikki's face. "I CAN START BY PUNCHING HIM AND SEE HOW IT GOES!"

She moved back, turning to the door that led to the staircase.

"I'M SICK OF THIS! I'm going after him, I don't care if you help me or not, I can take him out!"

She had been shouting non stop for a few minutes, and Chat Noir had stopped listening halfway through her argument with Marinette, focusing on helping the mind-controlled cops instead. Those words got his attention. He blanched.

"What?" he shouted, running after her. "You can't, he's my-

Alix cut him off.

"Stop. Right. There", she hissed, lifting her hand and nearly poking his nose.

He froze, leaning back just in time to avoid being touched.

"Better", Alix spat, running off.

Copycat groaned and hurried to Chat Noir, who was trying to give chase. He pulled him away from the staircase.

"I'll get her. Stay with the others", he ordered.

"But-"

"Going too!" Alya exclaimed, handing her phone to Marinette and racing away too. "There are wifi hotspots all over, I can get back quickly."

"I SAID FIVE MINUTES", Marinette shouted, trying to follow them.

Adrien was the one who barred her way.

Tikki liked that boy.

"You're too weak right now", he told Marinette. "We'll stay with Tikki until she recovers."

He pulled on his ring and transformed back.

"Plagg, please follow them", he told the Kwami when he reappeared. "Don't be seen. Come back if they get in trouble."

They didn't hear a protest, not one. Plagg just nodded and dove through a wall, his obedience a clear sign that he was feeling horribly guilty. Adrien closed his eyes under his mask, and took a deep breath.

"Alix is bluffing", Tikki said, flying up to him with a biscuit in her hands. "She know it is your father underneath _._ "

"I know", Adrien murmured.

Tikki nuzzled against his cheek. Marinette, however, did a much better job when she hugged him. The Kwami let them be, chewing a corner off her biscuit. She turned to Nino, who was trying to wake Aurore. The girl stirred and flew to the ceiling, frantically looking around her. It took her a few seconds to collect herself, then she sighed and landed next to Nino. He explained the situation then, in hushed whispers, showed her the door, then the ceiling. She nodded. He slipped out.

###

The humans would get killed.

Plagg tried not to feel a single thing about that certainty. They were strong, but only on the inside. Their powers and their physical prowess would not compete with Hawk Moth's. Felix (albeit injured) had been stronger than the three of them put together, and it had not saved him. The only thing he had managed to do was slow Argus for a few years, by making sure Makko would be too weak to be of use, and Copycat and his teammates did not have the same methods at their disposal.

They had no choice but to fight, the Kwami supposed. What else was there to do? There was no point in letting Argus escape. He knew all of the children's identities. He knew who their families were. He would hunt them down until Marinette and Adrien surrendered the Miraculous. He would not let them rest, he would not let them plan. He would be relentless in his efforts, and the children were not used to his brand of cruelty yet. He was less aggressive this time around, compared to the monster who had terrified Babylon and medieval London, which was undoubtedly a result of his host being a scheming businessman and not a warrior.

He was still Hawk Moth.

Maybe there was still a little of Gabriel Agreste left inside. It had been Plagg's hope when he had picked the man's son to replace Felix. Adrien was a hero to the core, of course. There was no arguing about that. His soul was pure, his heart was kind, his will was steel-clad. Still. Strength and kindness were not enough. You had to take all the advantages you could get, and a father's love for his son was a weakness that could not be ignored.

Plagg's decision had been so effective that Hawk Moth was flat out unable to take the Miraculous off Adrien's hand.

So it made the boy _sad_. So what?

The Kwami caught up with the wannabe-heroes on the last floor, just in time to see Alix make her way to the roof. They had checked every floor. Plagg could have told them to go to the roof straight away. Hawk Moth was many things, but not 'subtle'.

When they arrived, the monster was waiting for them. The mayor was sitting on the edge of the roof, shaking, with Hawk Moth's cane pressed under his throat.

"I was wondering what took you so long", Argus said, nonchalantly tapping his hostage's throat with the sharp end of the cane.

The weapon was glowing black.

"You're. So. DEAD!" Alix yelled, kicking her sandals off. "I'M SICK AND TIRED OF THIS. I AM NOT SPENDING THE REST OF MY LIFE _NOT_ TOUCHING PEOPLE. I WANT TO GET TO PUNCH KIM AGAIN."

Plagg, who was staying just out of sight, had to say he did not loathe that girl. She was nowhere as boring as her father. Her temper was to the kwami's liking. Just like her, he loved to destroy things. It was fun and efficient. It solved most of your problems and those it created were usually taken care of with long and unfelt apologies.

Argus would not be missed.

Just a little, by Adrien.

Adrien would get over it.

Or not.

But you had to have priorities.

Then again, the girl would absorb the Miraculous too. Possibly. And the worst evil spirit in history. Maybe stopping her was the best idea.

Copycat tried, grabbing her by the collar, but she whacked his hand away, and he had to move before she could touch him.

Alix charged.

Hawk Moth rolled his eyes, nonchalantly stabbing the air in her general direction. She dodged his cane by a hairbreadth.

Theo swore and joined in: he could not stop Alix, so he had to defend her, even if he _was_ getting tired. Hawk Moth kept them away with a flurry of slashes, his weapon turned into a pole that ended in a dark blade.

Alya aimed a pause icon at Hawk Moth, who dodged. The ring of pink light hit the mayor instead. Their opponent smirked and pushed the man off the roof. Well, he tried. That's when he and Plagg realized that Miss Wifi had not missed her target: Bourgeois didn't budge, not by an inch.

Hawk Moth snarled and called his Akumas. Copycat's fist connected with his face.

As it turned out, Theo now had human strength. He hurt himself. But it was the distraction needed for Alix to move in.

She was tiny. Very, very tiny. Size, Plagg thought, was a wonderful advantage. It was easier to hide behind people, or just to hide, when you were small. It was easier to remain unnoticed when you slid on the ground to tackle your enemy. Especially when you were a little faster than a human should have been.

Hawk Moth only noticed her when her naked feet connected with his leg.

He started turning transparent, and propelled himself up, hovering three feet over them, out of her reach.

"GET DOWN HERE AND COME END THIS, YOU CHICKEN!" the pink-haired mass of hatred yelled as she stood up.

Copycat gaped.

"Why did no one mention, up to this point, that the bad guy could _fly?_ "

"It's Hawk Moth!" Alix retorted. "MOTH. How is that not a dead giveaway?"

"I've got this", Miss Wifi whispered, bombarding Hawk Moth with a hail of icons.

Not only did he dodge effortlessly, she was tiring herself. Plagg landed on her shoulder. She was young, and new at this, and propelled by adrenaline. She had to be taught.

"Stop", he told her. "Stop, he's tricking you into wasting your powers."

She dodged three blows from his cane and took cover. The Akumas were twirling around Copycat, who was flailing to get them off him.

"He could kill us all", Alya murmured. "He isn't weak, he can't be weak."

Plagg's tail was whipping the air as he observed their flying enemy. Hawk Moth was not even winded. The energy Alix had stolen had returned to him, too, and he was no longer fading.

"He's not, but he's a coward. He wants every advantage he can get."

He wouldn't get within two feet of Alix. Plagg was surprised he had not left. Maybe he had hoped to lure Ladybug, and not just her friends. Maybe…

A large bubble hit Hawk Moth and imprisoned it.

"Ooooh, Nino I love you", Miss Wifi murmured, with a mildly sickened Plagg as her only audience.

Another bubble - this one occupied by Adrien's puny, obnoxious friend - flew above the roof's balustrade, landing straight on the Akuma-covered Theo. Glimmering pink light pushed the butterflies away everywhere they touched the colorful soap film. Nino dragged Theo into the bubble, to safety.

"Well, that was _easy_ ", the boy commented, looking a bit bewildered.

He turned to Hawk Moth, just like everyone else.

Their opponent smiled.

"Four", he said. "That will do."

He raised his cane and stabbed the bubble he was imprisoned in. It popped. Hawk Moth, who was hovering several floors and then some above the street, went into free-fall.

Alya yelled and ran to the balustrade. They all did. They all looked down.

Plagg, horrified, knew exactly what they would see beneath them: nothing, nothing at all.

"Where _is_ he?" Nino asked, stunned.

"Crap!" Alix swore. "Velocity, crap, crap, crap."

"Not _is_ ", Plagg replied in a strangled voice. "Argus is a time-traveler. Where _was_ he?"

###


	35. Chapter 35

Thanks for the reviews, everyone :D

* * *

Tikki ate a biscuit and barely felt her energy raise. It was like filling an endless pit with grains of sand. She had depleted her powers to the core, and she would need more than sugar to recover fully. The time she had spent in that magical cage had taken more of a toll on her than the subsequent fights, really, but the repeated use of Lucky Charm had not helped.

Once everything was over, if they won, she would sleep for a decade or so.

She watched Adrien try to figure out how to tie up and contain his father's assistant. As Schedule Conflict, she was too powerful to be left unattended, and there was no possible way for Ladybug to free her from her Akuma. Even if Tikki had been strong enough to maintain a transformation, the butterfly had escaped. Even if Nathalie had lost most of her powers when her tablet had been broken, the Akuma could still find an item to corrupt to anchor itself down. It meant that, if Schedule Conflict managed to get away, she could get her hands on a new weapon, just like Picture Perfect had found a phone after his camera had been shattered.

The longest the Akuma remained cut from a physical object, the more likely it was to be sucked back into Hawk Moth's essence, which would have solved quite a lot of problems.

Adrien knew all of that. He still didn't relish having to restrain Nathalie. To him, it felt like adding to the insult. He had told Marinette the _last_ thing the woman would have wanted was to be even more under his father's control.

"Normal rope won't do", he murmured. "Where did you even find rope?"

"I asked the cops, they had some in one of the police vans", Marinette replied.

"It won't do", Adrien repeated, biting the inside of his cheeks.

He ran a hand through his hair (still impeccably slicked back). He used the rope anyway. They had nothing else to work with. The boy moved away, the corner of his mouth twitching.

"How much longer, Tikki?" he asked.

She considered her answer. She could probably maintain a last transformation, power a last Lucky Charm, but she longed for hours of rest. That being said, everyone was exhausted. Aurore was dozing off. Even if she had slept, Marinette was wobbling, and was running on adrenaline. The only one who was not tired was Adrien, as he was not about to deplete his Akuma's energy.

She gulped down a last amaretto. She could not waste time, not with the children on their way to fight Hawk Moth, if they had not already found him.

"I'm ready", she announced.

Marinette straightened up, slipping into Ladybug's persona even before her mask and costume appeared.

"Spots on!" she called.

Tikki spiraled into her earrings. The transformation started. What little energy the Kwami had left spread over Marinette, glimmering light twirling around the girl, replacing her clothes with magical red fabric.

The armor was halfway on when the blade of dark light pierced through Marinette's chest.

###

"Careless", Hawk Moth commented, letting go of his lengthened cane.

The weapon returned to its normal size, remaining firmly embedded into Marinette's chest, pinning her to the wall like a dead butterfly. Adrien watched Tikki drop to the floor, after being expulsed out of her Miraculous. He watched Marinette go limp as her costume reverted back to her normal clothes.

For a moment, he thought she was dead, but the perk of being a lies-sensing supervillain was that you could still feel secrets, just like a faint heartbeat, when someone had passed out instead of passed.

Now, that power would have been more convenient if it had allowed Adrien to detect Hawk Moth.

"Claws out", he called, hoping Plagg was close enough to get sucked into his ring.

Nothing happened.

Well then. He could as well thank Hawk Moth for the backup superpowers. He took a snapshot of his enemy, who laughed and kept moving as if nothing had happened. So Adrien attacked. He was weaker as Picture Perfect, but Hawk Moth had just let go of his main weapon. That evened things out, at least a little. The man could fight, but the boy was skilled too, and he wasn't alone. As soon as Aurore had realized the danger, she had transformed, and was trying to get their opponent to lose his balance through small blasts of wind.

Adrien had two small advantages. For a start, he was _done_ , done, done, done with Hawk Moth and his constant preying on his family and friends. He had the single-minded focus that came with that state of mind, with that cold determination. Enough. Was. Enough. On top of that, as far as he knew… Hawk Moth was weakened from the inside. During their first fight, he had not been able to take the Miraculous, because Makko's magic had protected Adrien. She was fighting him. She had sent butterflies to help Adrien and his friends.

Clearly, the Kwami was still resisting Hawk Moth's control. Adrien managed to land a few blows. When his opponent tried to strike back, his arms trembled and twisted, pink sparkles flickering over his gloved hands. Not that he did not power through, each of his attacks hitting Adrien, but not with their full force. Inflicting damage was not Hawk Moth's priority, however. Mostly, he was trying to throw him to the floor, or to grab the hand Adrien's Miraculous was on.

"Claws out", the boy murmured over and over again, praying for Plagg to come back. "Claws out, claws out, claws-"

He heard his Kwami yelp, and did a backflip to get away from Hawk Moth, hoping not to be too vulnerable during his transformation. With some luck, Aurore would manage to keep the monster away from him.

He caught Plagg's motion across the air just as he got back to his feet after his jump. The Kwami dove into his ring.

Hawk Moth tried to charge, but Sunny Weather propelled herself above his head and dropped with her full weight.

"You stupid child", the villain shouted, throwing her off him.

His rage got the better of him: he raised a balled fist oozing with black magic, then grabbed Aurore by the wrist. The dark glow spread over her, seeping into her clothes. White butterfly wings fluttered out of her face and hair. She fainted.

And then, a few seconds later, Chat Noir's stick connected with his face.

He heard a telltale beep.

###

Range, Chat Noir thought, was wonderful. Range was his favorite advantage. The claws were nice, the special attack was great, the smoldering good looks were definitely convenient, but the range was a blessing.

Range allowed him to inflict damage without receiving any. It kept him out of reach of Hawk Moth's magic, and of his blows. Staffs were really good for tripping supervillains, too. It allowed someone to turn a battle where they were severely outmatched into a long, frustrating fight where neither side could gain the advantage.

Except Chat Noir _had_ the advantage.

There was another beep.

It came from under Hawk Moth's suit. That was where he had hidden the Miraculous. As soon as he would revert back into Gabriel - would that take three minutes? Two? - Chat Noir would grab the butterfly pin. It would free Makko, and possibly Adrien's father with her, if he was lucky. And then he would have to turn to Tikki for solutions, because he had no idea what to do against the worst Akuma in existence without Ladybug. He was the perfect picture of someone who couldn't be trusted against evil spirits.

Heh. He'd have to remember that one.

"Adrien! Adrien, stop this _nonsense_ ", Hawk Moth exclaimed, giving him a scathing glare through his mask.

Chat Noir stumbled, his attack missing his opponent by a mile or so. That was his father's voice. Worse, it was his intonation, his words. It made him doubt.

"You shouldn't be stopping me", Hawk Moth said, hands raised. "You should _help_ me. Don't you _know_ why I'm doing this?"

The young hero took a deep breath, staff raised between them, ready to attack or to defend himself, depending how things went.

"You really like giving people the evil eye?" he asked. "You are really frustrated about the costume you got with the Miraculous? It's a moth point anyway, because I don't really want to know."

" _I need her magic_ ", Hawk Moth yelled, pointing at Tikki, who was hovering in front of Marinette's still form. "Makko doesn't even have a _fraction_ of Ladybug's power. But with it, just with that Miraculous, I can go back far enough. I can save your mother!"

"Don't listen to him!" Tikki warned. "He's lying. That's not your father talking."

Adrien wondered about that. He knew just how much Gabriel had loved his mother. He had been willing to give his own life for someone to travel back a day to prevent her death. It was how Hawk Moth had gotten into his head to begin with.

It did not matter, because Akumas twisted people. They took their desires and dreams and frustration and scraped away everything that was not rage and purpose. If it _was_ his father talking, it wasn't all of him.

As for getting his mother back, well…

Chat Noir put that thought aside, where it couldn't hurt him, and attacked.

Hawk Moth rolled away from the staff blow, and slid to Marinette. He grabbed his cane, pulling it out of her chest - and there was not a trace of blood or of injury, thank _God_ \- before lengthening it to the size of a sword. Marinette collapsed.

There was another beep.

Chat Noir brought his staff down on Hawk Moth, who blocked it with his sword. The blond attacked again. His enemy parried. They exchanged strike after strike, and Adrien quickly realized how outmatched he was: he was good, and he was trained, but he had not been a hero for nearly as long as Argus. Hawk Moth added his centuries of experience to Gabriel's own training. The way the villain parried was effortless, and he made his way to Chat Noir without taking a single blow. It took one mistake for Adrien's stick to be forced out of his hands.

If hit the wall on his left and clattered on the floor.

"You should have taken my side", Hawk Moth said, pushing him against the wall stabbing him through the chest with his cane. "You never could. What a disappointment."

It felt like pressure. It wasn't a wound, it was not piercing, it did not hurt, which was probably why Hawk Moth had managed that attack without resistance from Makko. It just kept Chat Noir's chest firmly stuck. The boy could flail, he could kick, but he could not detach himself from the wall. No amount of pulling on the cane seemed to even get it to shake.

He watched Hawk Moth walk to Marinette and crouch next to her.

Chat Noir tried to pull the cane out again. The man had a minute left at most, but that was a minute too much.

The cane wouldn't budge.

"Cataclysm", Chat Noir yelled, grabbing the weapon's grip.

He threw himself forward as the cane shattered and rusted, landing on Hawk Moth. His pale eyes widened in surprise. He had not expected Adrien to free himself. _Adrien_ had not expected Adrien to free himself.

He scratched through Hawk Moth's jacket, uncovering a nearly blackened butterfly pin. Three of its wings had turned dark, and the last one was flickering.

 _Just a few more seconds_ , Chat Noir thought. _Keep him busy._

Hawk Moth shoved him away, turning his back to Marinette to better push Adrien against the floor. It was his mistake. Marinette propped herself up, wrapped an arm around him, and tore the Butterfly Miraculous away.

A pink shape burst out of it, spinning around them in a flutter of wings. Hawk Moth's costume disappeared, the dark suit turning white, the mask vanishing and revealing Gabriel's stunned face. There was a coin-sized blood stain on his chest, where the Miraculous had been pinned. Adrien's father closed his fist on the cloth of his shirt, blanching as he grasped fabric and nothing else.

He whirled to Marinette, who had pulled away, fist balled tight around the Butterfly pin. She was crawling backwards. Gabriel tried to grab her arm, and Chat Noir pulled him back.

"DROP IT", his father yelled, paying no attention to his son. "DROP-"

There was a crystalline laughter above them.

"DROP IT" Tikki shouted too.

She was looking to the ceiling. Adrien followed her eyes, and saw Makko, just as she dove into her Miraculous again. She was pink, but dark violet stains were moving all over her skin. Her expression was cruel. Her eyes were deep black.

She vanished into the pin.

"Take wing", Marinette said.

###


	36. Chapter 36

"Take wing."

Never, in his life, had Adrien been more terrified of two words. He had not realized how quick a transformation was either. How long were they? Ten seconds? Fifteen? That was so little when you were suspended to your partner's arm as she was twirling in the air, as you tried to pry her hand open to grab a Miraculous. Her gloves appeared first, of course. Black, smooth, and more importantly "quantically armored".

He tore them apart with his claws, but still did not manage to open Marinette's clenched fist.

She stopped twirling, the transformation over. Her clothes had been replaced by a violet suit and a black cowl, more feminine than Hawk Moth's original costume, but still unmistakable. Thankfully, the cane had not reappeared.

Adrien's father jumped and grabbed her leg, trying to pull her down, but she kicked him away effortlessly. Chat Noir watched Gabriel crash against the wall on the other side of the room, and collapse on the floor. He prayed for his father not to be hurt. He didn't have the luxury to worry, however. He needed to get the Miraculous.

Marinette landed. Chat Noir stumbled as his feet hit the ground, and she spun on herself to trip him, freeing her arm as she did so.

"Youth," she commented, sliding away and hopping into place twice to test her new body. "Wonderful."

Then, Adrien heard the most reassuring noise he had ever heard coming from her hand: a beep. Hawk Moth had been about to untransform even before Marinette had taken the butterfly pin from him.

Of course, Chat Noir could never be allowed a stroke of good luck.

His ring beeped.

Marinette clicked her tongue.

"Spots on."

Tikki was nowhere in sight. For a second or so, Adrien hoped that she had managed to flee, that she was too far away for Hawk Moth to force her to add Ladybug's transformation to the Butterfly's. Unfortunately, the red Kwami was sucked through the window and straight into Marinette's earrings, through the cowl.

Chat breathed in and attacked. That transformation was the only opening he would have: Hawk Moth would never, ever use Lucky Charm.

He threw her to the floor, hoping it would slow the metamorphosis, hoping it would have some effect, but red and black sparkles kept spreading over her, materializing Ladybug's costume. It was violet with black spots instead of vivid red. She grew pale pink wings. The hood remained in place, with its butterfly outline around the eyes. Adrien slipped his claws through the cowl's opening, between the cloth and Marinette's cheek, and cut through the cloth.

It left one earring exposed, but too late: the transformation was over. Hawk Moth shoved Chat Noir away and jumped to her feet, wings fluttering behind her. She brushed her hair over her ear, to cover the Miraculous where her hood had been torn.

Chat Noir's ring beeped.

"Look at that, the kitten is out of lives," Marinette's voice said, with her mouth, with her body, but it did not sound like her at all.

He peeked down. He had less than three minutes.

Hawk Moth reached for her yoyo and threw it at Chat Noir, the string shining silver as it stretched across the room. Marinette whirled, sending the yoyo spiraling, and Adrien had to jump to avoid being sliced in two by the string. It cut straight through the reception booth - metallic, wooden, and plastic parts alike - before the yoyo spun back to Hawk Moth's hand.

Now that Chat Noir thought about it, his father being Hawk Moth's host had been much better. Namely, Gabriel had been less willing to murder him.

Maybe Marinette would manage to fight the possession too? He had seen her resist a swarm of Akumas. It did not look like it was among the immediate options, however. You just had to see the look on her face to understand that.

He dodged another attack, jumping above the yoyo string when it nearly severed his legs at knee level, then paled. He was not alone in the room. His father was probably injured. As if that was not bad enough, he had Aurore and Nathalie to worry about. He raced to his father's assistant, carrying her to the window and dropping her into the street. He did not wait to watch her land, just prayed for the fall not to injure her. She was paralyzed by Alya's magic. He hoped it worked by entirely stopping her, down to the cellular level. If it didn't… It was a very short fall.

Of course, Hawk Moth was not about to let him rescue people.

In the time it had taken Adrien to get Nathalie out, Marinette had crouched and sent her yoyo spinning around her. Aurore was still lying on the floor, unconscious, and Chat Noir ran to her, getting her out of the string's way before she could get hurt. He saw Gabriel roll to a corner and flatten himself as close to the wall as possible, to stay out of the yoyo's range.

Hawk Moth jumped to the ceiling, wings flickering, and ran to the window. She dropped to the floor, yoyo spinning, blocking the way out.

Chat's ring beeped again.

Two minutes.

He threw Aurore over his shoulder and started running 'at random', just as Ladybug's yoyo soared towards him again. He had a goal: his staff was still on the floor, at the other end of the room, and there was a chance he could get it if Hawk Moth forgot about it. Jumping and dodging was harder with a passed out girl over one's shoulders, and landing in the proper spot proved difficult without looking towards it, but he managed.

Hawk Moth realized what Chat Noir was doing right as the young hero grabbed his weapon. The metallic yoyo string hit a spinning staff and wrapped itself around it. Chat let Aurore slip to the floor, pulling on his staff to keep the string taut. The possessed Ladybug pulled back. She changed strategy when Chat Noir neither stumbled nor moved closer. Instead of yanking the yoyo to her, she let the string unreel. It slipped down Chat's stick.

You think you're really clever, the boy thought.

He hit the floor with the staff and extended it to the ceiling, locking it into place with the yoyo still wrapped around it. He grabbed Ladybug's weapon and pushed it between its own string's loops, and watched the string get hopelessly tangled when Hawk Moth tried to pull.

"Don't you just love cat's craddle?" Adrien said, pouncing on his opponent.

She jumped up and met him with a kick followed by a salto, then ran along the room's walls. Chat Noir frowned, preparing to intercept her. She was looking around in confusion, searching for something, and Adrien realized with overwhelming relief that his father was gone.

His ring beeped. One minute.

He charged. That was not much of a timeframe, but he would still be Picture Perfect if his transformation wore off. And, even then, maybe the others were alright and would join in. He tried to land a scratch, but Hawk Moth dodged, whirling into the air, then crouching to try to trip him. He avoided the kick with a somersault, whirling back to her, only to be met by a foot to the face. He blocked that blow with both hands. His opponent used that makeshift support to propel herself away.

Her wings vanished.

She stumbled as her gravity center shifted, and Chat Noir used that opening to pounce again, grabbing her arm and trying to open her balled fist. Despite his weight on her, she managed to push both knees into his stomach and to shove him above her head. It twisted both of their arms, sending a wave of pain through Adrien, from his shoulder to his toes. He was forced to let go, though he saw her hand uncurl. The butterfly Miraculous was under her costume, but Ladybug's glove was torn and left the pin mostly exposed.

Good.

Hawk Moth rolled, jumping to her feet as he struggled to get back to his.

Then, she fled. She abandoned her yoyo and raced to the window, throwing pieces of wood and metal towards Chat Noir as she jumped over the destroyed reception booth. He dodged what he could and kicked the rest away, trying to catch Hawk Moth before she could get out of the building. She jumped through the window. He hoped over the windowsill. A second later, he collapsed with a yell as hands grabbed his belt and pulled him to the ground.

His father shoved him face down against the pavement, putting his whole weight into keeping him still.

"Don't. Give. Chase. She can control you," Gabriel hissed.

"I can't let her get away!" Chat snapped, shoving his father to the side.

There was no point: Hawk Moth was gone already, having turned at the closest corner to get out of sight. She could have gone anywhere. Adrien snarled, standing up and looking around just in case their enemy was spying on them from some vantage point.

Gabriel clicked his tongue.

"Let's get back in-"

There was a last beep. Chat Noir's transformation reverted, leaving Picture Perfect standing in front of the stylist, and a hissing Plagg hovering between them. The Kwami landed on the boy's shoulder. Gabriel ignored it.

Rage overwhelmed Adrien for a second or so. He swallowed it back. His father studied his face, jaw clenched, then got to his feet.

"Let's get back inside," he repeated, joining Schedule Conflict, who was lying on the floor right where Chat Noir had dropped her.

Gabriel tried to lift her up. He swayed under her weight, and Adrien went to help him in tense silence. They carried Nathalie inside, carefully setting her down on the floor. As soon as she was safe, Adrien's father walked away as if she did not matter at all. Instead, he followed the silvery string of Ladybug's yoyo to the weapon itself, and picked it up. Chat Noir's staff, of course, had vanished.

Adrien could feel Plagg's tail swatting his back. The Kwami was seething. Still, he was also exhausted. The teenager put a hand on his back to keep him quiet.

The yoyo disappeared as they watched.

"She untransformed?" Picture Perfect murmured.

"She found sweets," his father commented, wiping his hand on his pants. "Hawk Moth will force Makko to eat before getting back into the fight."

He sounded unconcerned.

"So she's going to come back twice as powerful!" Adrien exclaimed, horrified.

What were they supposed to do? How were they supposed to save Marinette when she would be fighting them with the powers of not just one, but two Kwamis?

"That's irrelevant," his father replied, looking around. "Hawk Moth will have the same weaknesses regardless of the power he gathers. Over and over again, the same monsters." - He sighed. - "You are so woefully uninformed about the nature of the enemy you are fighting."

Adrien clenched his fists, hurt to hear more criticism. It felt like a slap to the face. Gabriel noticed his expressions and grimaced.

"I was stating a fact, Adrien. I didn't mean to blame you for it."

He breathed in, eyes lost into the distance, then snapped out of it.

"Are you alright?" he asked, joining his son.

The teenager took a step back, darkness twisting inside his chest. His father sighed and hugged him. Adrien froze. He did not remember that sensation at all. He did not remember the last time his father had done such a thing, to be honest. The boy hesitated, raising his arms, holding them up, then closing them around Gabriel.

Picture Perfect felt his phone slide out of his pocket.

"W-"

It was a trick, he realized, only now sensing the underlying lie. He had wanted to believe in it. He had wanted to believe his father cared.

Gabriel, barely moving back, dropped the phone to the floor and stepped on it. It cracked, pieces flying in all directions.

"I am not doing this again, are we clear?" he said as the Akuma escaped the remains of its fetish.

He grabbed it between two fingers and released it above his palm. The butterfly landed and stopped moving. Gabriel closed his hands on it and looked down at them. A second later, black magic started glimmering around his fingers and sank into his skin.

Adrien felt his mask vanish. Magic spread over him, erasing Picture Perfect's costume, draining the darkness out of him and purging it away. He soon found himself - himself - standing in his own clothes and his own mind in front of his father. The rage was gone (there was anger left, but it was his own). He no longer felt the lies around him, he no longer wanted to expose them (or just a little, but he knew it was not his right).

When Gabriel opened his hands again, the butterfly had turned snow white.

Plagg jumped off Adrien's shoulder and hovered around the creature. His chosen stared at it.

"It did not corrupt you," he murmured, horrified. What his father had just done could not be good. It should not have been possible. "How did it not corrupt you?"

"It wouldn't have corrupted you if you had been able to keep your emotions in check," Gabriel retorted, voice as cold as it had been for the last decade.

His son breathed in, swallowing hard. He had hoped for some kind of change.

His father shook his head and sighed.

"I suppose you were expecting me to turn into a different person now that the darkness has been purged away. Unfortunately, an 'absence of evil' does not equate 'goodness'."

Plagg twitched and returned to Adrien's shoulder.

"That magic is not vanishing," he whispered.

"How… How long have you been doing this?" the teenager asked. "How-"

His father raised his second hand, letting a second butterfly flutter out of his wrist, then bury itself back into his arm.

"That would be how. I have access to some of Makko's abilities. Not many of them, I'm afraid."

"It's not vanishing," Plagg repeated. "You would need all of her powers."

Gabriel clicked his tongue, staring at the Kwami, then ignoring him entirely to turn to his son.

"Do you want to know why Plagg cannot for the life of him perform an exorcism?" he asked. "That would be because it is not and will never be in his nature. What you need - the only power you need - is the ability to forgive. That would be why Tikki is the best at it, while Plagg" - He gave the spirit a side-look. - "has to grasp at straws to cleanse the butterflies. You have to take the anger in and let it go, a concept some just cannot comprehend."

He turned to Plagg and gave him a long, icy look, then shook his head. He brushed the butterfly he had just purified off and watched it fly to Aurore. The insect landed on her arm and sank into it.

Adrien ran to her, as leaving her crumpled on the floor was definitely not an option. He carried her to a chair instead. She mumbled in her sleep, but it looked like she would be out cold for a while.

"Do you think that magic affects him?" Adrien asked Plagg, his voice too low for his father to overhear.

He had forgotten his bruised feelings. They had been replaced by worry for his father, that merged with the terror he felt for Ladybug and his fears about his friends, who had not returned yet. The only reason he was not freaking out about them was that he knew Plagg would have told him about any serious danger Alya or Nino were in.

"I don't know," his Kwami murmured. "It's true I have to use tricks and spells to purge the Akumas, while Tikki does it easily for the exact reasons Argus explained. But…"

"But?"

"But he might be able to do it. It's just… You'd have to be… He… Nevermind. We'll get Tikki back. She will help him."

Adrien swallowed. That was not reassuring, at all. He looked up. His father was crouching next to Nathalie. The teenager frowned and joined them. He leaned closer and and watched Gabriel test the ropes she was tied up with.

"Can we help her?" Adrien asked, afraid to mention the whole 'cleansing an Akuma with one's bare hands' trick.

"I could free her but not make her forget," Gabriel replied. His face did not change expression, but one of his fists clenched. His voice remained even. "The removal of the memories is however necessary. The wisest course of action is to wait for Ladybug to be freed."

Would she ever be? Adrien wondered. Fighting her would be hard enough, but Hawk Moth was likely to return to hiding and to send possessed villains in their stead. It was a cowardly but sound strategy.

"It could take a long time," the boy mused, staring at the stranger that was Gabriel Agreste.

All the childhood drawings and half-erased memories in the world would not have been enough to make him and his father connect. Gabriel had been warmer before his mother's death. Scratched knees and ten step plans written down on bristol sheets. He had changed. The question was "was it irreversible?". Being turned into a monster left scars, and the absorption of dark magic straight out of evil spirits had to take more of a toll than Plagg would say out loud.

"I don't think so," Gabriel commented. "Makko was finally found out, hiding is no longer an option for Hawk Moth. I… tried to send warnings, by the way, but thinking about Hawk Moth at all brought him out."

Plagg's tail whipped Adrien's shoulder.

"How?" he said, sounding beyond exhausted. "Hawk Moth could not have corrupted the Miraculous without Makko letting him in. So how? How did he convince her to make a deal? She's not human, she's not supposed to-"

A phone started ringing. The sound was coming from Marinette's discarded purse. Adrien went to fetch it, carefully pointing the device towards the floor and away from him, just in case.

As soon as he picked up, Alya jumped out of the screen.

"Is everyone okay? The others are trapped in the staircase, the power is off and the doors are blocked shut in every direction."

She saw the look on Adrien's face and paled.

###


	37. Chapter 37

Alya tried to tune the yelling out. Now that their haphazard team had been freed from the staircase, and had regrouped in the Grand Paris' lobby, the biggest problem they had to face - possessed superheroine aside - became very apparent: they lacked a leading figure. Without Ladybug's firm and confident leadership, no one knew what to do, but everyone had an idea.

In normal circumstances, Chat Noir would have handled things, but they did not have a Chat Noir either. What they had was a subdued, exhausted Adrien who was still reeling after facing too much in too little time. He had _just_ been released from the Akuma's control, had barely recovered from discovering his parents past, and was now facing the prospect of having to fight his partner. He was trying his hardest to cover everyone's voices and to give instructions, but no one was listening.

Theo was trying to parent.

Mister Agreste was trying to give orders.

Alix was trying to fight.

Aurore was trying to sleep.

Nino was trying to 'state his reasonable opinion in a really loud voice'.

Adrien was interjecting "people, please"'s and "just''s and "I think we"'s between a neverending flow of "WE ARE NOT FOLLOWING THE SUPERVILLAIN REJECT" and "Do you have any idea what you are dealing with, miss?" and "will you children _please_ calm down?".

If Alya did not intervene, they would be arguing until the end of time.

She swiped her phone, pointed the camera at her face, and watched a gigantic picture of herself appear in the air. She swallowed a smug smile. She had not tried _that_ trick before, and was glad it worked.

Then she yelled her own instructions. Her voice came out of the hologram in a earsplitting roar, so loud it made the windows tremble.

"EVERYONE LISTEN TO THE FLYING RAT!"

She really did not like Plagg, but she had to admit the centuries old quantic god was bound to be the most qualified to handle this crisis.

Her companions covered their ears, wincing (Alix, who was the closest to the screen, even looked a little nauseated). Then, they all turned to the drowsy Kwami resting on Adrien's shoulder. The spirit blinked, only belatedly realizing the room had gone quiet.

"Plagg, what do we _do_?" Adrien asked, his voice just a little bit strangled.

Everyone opened their mouths to voice their opinion. Alya snapped her fingers in front of her phone. The deafening click was enough of a deterrent to enforce silence.

The Kwami sluggishly looked around.

"Can't one of you find me cheese?" he asked.

"SERIOUSLY?" Alya yelled, remembering too late she was being broadcast on her own magical screen.

They all pressed their hands against their ears. She had to massage the inside of hers until the buzzing subdued. Adrien was the first to recover. He put a hand on his Kwami's back, stroking his neck with the tip of a finger.

"What do we do?" he murmured, subdued. "Help me out, please."

He was avoiding his father's eyes, remaining half-turned away from him. Alya studied mister Agreste's face, wondering was was going on in the man's head. She did not know him enough to understand him, but she felt like something was amiss. The Gabriel Agreste she had met had been cold and reserved, and - outwardly - he still was, but there was something vacant and tired in his expression. While he was staring at his son, his eyes kept losing focus.

He took a step forward, placing a hand on Adrien's shoulder. The gesture was not a reassuring one: it was a clear order to shut up and surrender control. Adrien shrunk under the touch, lowering his head.

Plagg straightened up, sticking his nose up in the air.

"You know full well what to do," he said, huffing. "If you could not handle a situation like this one, you would not be my chosen."

Mister Agreste's cold eyes turned to the Kwami and bore holes into his head.

Adrien swallowed, breathed in, and squared his shoulders, slipping out of Gabriel's grasp.

"We rest, we study the situation, we come up with a plan. There's a lot we don't know about Hawk Moth and the Kwami he's possessing. We _need_ to debrief, which means - among other things - listening to _Argus_ ' perspective on this," he announce, with a long, pointed look at his father.

The man clenched his jaw but did not contradict him.

"And we need to get our families to safety," Adrien continued. "Hawk Moth could go after them. He's been known to do so before."

Plagg murmured a satisfied "see?".

Theo morphed back into Chat Noir.

"I'll see if I can convince the mayor to have the police fetch all of your parents," he said. "Can we barricade in here?"

Mister Agreste clicked his tongue.

"The mansion would do. We don't know how many civilians are still hiding in the hotel, all susceptible to being evilized. And yes, everyone's family is a priority. We should be safe for at least one hour, however. Makko needs to be fed. She's exhausted, not only from the trip back through time, but from having her magic drained by Plot Hole and Plot Bunny for so long. On that note, all of you need sugar."

Alya put her phone away.

"Sugar?" she asked.

She was longing for sleep, but her stomach grumbled at the mention of food and she suddenly forgot about her tiredness.

"Sugar?" Aurore exclaimed, perking up.

"This might sound slightly worrying," mister Agreste explained, "but the butterflies are feeding _from you_. If you don't steadily down energy drinks while using your powers, you're bound to pass out."

They all gaped. Copycat shook himself out of it.

"Parents," he exclaimed. "I need names. Phone numbers."

###

Designer furniture fit mister Agreste to a tee: it was made of sharp edges, looked pristine, and made people terribly uncomfortable. Alya had never had to shift so much in a sofa for her backside to stop hurting. From the look on her friends' faces, they were of the same opinion. Still, nobody had complained. They were all too busy sipping their teas with honey or their hot cocoa, as Adrien questioned Argus.

Not that the questioning went well.

"Plagg," Mister Agreste drawled after the Kwami interrupted him for the seventh time. "I am _sorry_ about Felix, but if you are intent on discarding any help I can offer based on events I do not even remember, we will not go far."

He did not sound sorry. He did not even sound concerned. His tone was best described as annoyed. Alya was studying his body language and expressions, however, and was slowly coming to the conclusion that the man was fighting to keep himself together. His eyes kept shifting to Adrien's shoes and their butterfly logo, or to the stylized silvery outlines on the black doors of the room. His body was not moving. Not at all. He had taken the best armchair and sat down in it with his back straight, his arms on the armrests, his chin up, and had remained perfectly still since then. The most he allowed himself to do was to tilt his head to the side or to turn it. There was no fidgeting, no repositioning, and that was a big tell. He was not nearly relaxed enough for his position to be comfortable, which meant he was watching his every motion (or lack thereof).

This from a man who had spent the last… decade? possessed by an evil spirit. If Alya had been in his place, she would have been flipping out. But Gabriel Agreste did not flip out.

Plagg was not prone to analyzing small details like that, or flat out did not care about trying. He had been hostile with mister Agreste for the thirty minutes they had spent in his presence and, for twenty of them, they had followed Copycat around as he ensured everyone's families would be brought to the Agreste's.

The Kwami's behavior was influenced by Adrien's, actually. The more depressed the boy grew, the meaner Plagg was. Just like Alix. Nino was glowering, but he refrained from snapping at Gabriel, unlike the black cat and their classmate. Theo alternated between grumbling without daring to say a word when mister Agreste was too harsh with his son, and turning into Copycat to criticize him in hushed whispers. Aurore… Aurore seemed to like Gabriel and saw nothing amiss in the way he and his son interacted. Then again, when she had been asked about her parents by the policemen sent to get their families, Aurore had said hers were safe. They were on a trip. The blonde had forgotten which country they were visiting that week.

"As I was saying," mister Agreste continued after Plagg rolled his eyes and returned to his cheese, "the girl _will_ untransform, but as long as that pin is embedded in her hand, she will be under his control. She won't be given the opportunity to resist. She was not offered a deal. Much like the mummies created by Pharaoh, she is pushed out of consciousness whenever Hawk Moth wishes to assume control. She was not evilized. She is just… a minion, for lack of a better word."

Alya turned to Adrien, who studied his father's face. His own was growing paler by the second. She leaned forward, looking at mister Agreste.

"Obviously, _you_ could resist, at least a little. That's why you gave me the necklace, right?"

The man nodded.

"It took me a few years. Being confronted to mementos of important events in my life helped. Items have more of an effect than people, too. Akuma magic depends on physical anchors, and is equally vulnerable to them. When you are… being controlled, there is more of an awareness of objects and of their emotional meaning. They act like beacons, snap you out of the darkness. People… They barely reached me. My son did, to some extent, but that's about it."

Adrien took a sharp breath. Gabriel kept his eyes on Alya.

"So we could get things that would remind Marinette of good memories?" she asked. "Of us?"

"You can. Now, their effect remains to be seen. As far as miss Dupain-Cheng is concerned, she has blacked out. I doubt she'll remember what happened past the moment she grabbed the Miraculous. In the last few hours, she resisted a swarm of Akumas _and_ a full-blown attempt at possession. Then, she was it by Schedule Conflict's magic. That's a lot, even for Ladybug. Even if the items catch her attention, she might not have the energy to fight. Who is the closest person to the girl?"

Everyone pointed to Alya, as she pointed to Adrien.

"Alya is Marinette's _best_ friend," the boy said, smiling to her. "Chat Noir is most likely her second best."

His father frowned.

"Then a lot will rest on your shoulders, miss Césaire. Yours and my son's," he corrected.

"I'll have to go home," Alya said. "I have things she gave me. Things we bought together."

Adrien looked down at his ring.

"I will have to face her as Chat Noir," he commented. "And I have the scarf. Hopefully, that will be enough to help her out of the 'minionization'. Now, the question is… what do we _do_? We can fight her, we can take the Butterfly Miraculous away, but how do we stop Hawk Moth from controlling the mind of the first person who touches it? And then, how do we help _Makko_?"

"Dude," Nino cut in. "One thing at a time."

"No, those are good points," Plagg intervened. "The Miraculous _cannot_ be touched. Akuma's powers multiply when they anchor themselves into a fetish. If Makko targets someone with mind control, there will be no resisting it."

"Wait. Wait, wait, wait," Alix exclaimed, wincing. "That pink Kwami was turned into a supervillain, we have no Ladybug to do the whole exorcism thing, _and_ the item we have to break to get the Akuma out cannot be touched. Or we'd turn into zombie puppets."

"That and the Miraculous cannot be broken," Plagg announced.

"WHAT?"

Alya groaned.

"Cannot as in 'we shouldn't' or cannot as in 'it's impossible'?"

"Both," the Kwami replied. "Even my powers are not enough to break one. It's been put to the test. And even if it was possible… _Possession victims get a pass_. You were _all_ rescued. I won't let my sister be hurt."

Adrien leaned towards him.

"No one was considering hurting Makko, Plagg," he said. "We just don't know quantic magic very well. We'll have to capture her and figure something out, that's all. I mean, if I manage to get Ladybug's yoyo, I can tie the string to the butterfly pin and pull it out, or… I'm sure there are many strategies. We just have to get creative."

That seemed to soothe the tiny god. He relaxed and inhaled some cheese.

Everyone was so busy looking at the Kwami that Alya felt like she would be better off paying attention to everyone else. She knew Alix was fuming, and that Nino was worried, and that Aurore was mildly curious at best, having been dragged into this by one email. Copycat was livid, and frowned as he watched Adrien and Plagg. Mister Agreste was staring at his son, lips pursed. Alya saw him take a long breath, and shudder. He composed himself before anyone could notice his distress.

Adrien turned to each of them, one by one, from Alya to Nino to Alix and Aurore, then his father, then Theo. His eyes returned to his best friend.

"Right now, we need to rest," he declared. He turned to Alya. "We recover our full energy. And _then_ , as _soon_ as we are ready," he continued with a pointed look to Alix, "we track Hawk Moth down. Before he can hurt any-"

The doorbell rang.

Adrien jumped to his feet, already turning to the living room door, but mister Agreste sighed and stood in a much slower motion.

"Let us see whose parents arrived," the man said, sounding barely concerned.

His son took another step towards the door.

"I'll go and…"

" _I_ will go, Adrien," Gabriel snapped. "I'm perfectly able of opening my own doors. Do take your own advice and rest."

Alya ran to the window, realized the room was on the back of the house, and sighed.

"Mind if I come with you?" she asked the stylist, without waiting for his answer.

She hurried to the exit instead. She walked out then peeked in. Mister Agreste gave her the coldest, most irritated glare he could muster (it was definitely an impressive one). He did not comment, however, and followed her out. She waited for them to have crossed half the house to talk.

"So are you okay?"

"Yes, miss Césaire, I am _well_."

"You know Adrien would be a lot less worried if you allowed yourself to show you're not, right?"

"With all due respect, miss, were you ever taught to mind your own business?"

"I think that came up, then I decided to become a reporter."

The conversation stopped there. They had reached the house's entrance. Mister Agreste did not open the doors, but slipped into his assistant's office instead, to check the security cameras. He exchanged a few quick words with a cop, before opening the courtyard's gates by pressing a button on the interphone. Alya ran to the main doors and let the cops in, as well as _her_ family.

"My god, Alya, you're _alright_ ," her mother exclaimed, pulling her into a crushing hug.

Not a second later, the teenager's sisters joined in. Her father had to lean over them to wrap an arm around his oldest daughter and his wife.

###

Adrien had fallen asleep not five minutes after the conversation about Hawk Moth had died down (which had occurred right after the Kubdel family had arrived, as it removed the more energetic party from the room). With Alix gone, the boy had found himself with the much quieter Copycat, an Aurore Borell too busy stuffing herself with food to bother talking to people, and Nino.

Nino could tell his friend _needed_ to rest, so he had patted his shoulder and let silence fall.

Plagg, as unpleasant as he could be, had landed on his chosen's shoulder and provided what comfort it could by being a cat sitting on its owner.

They were all exhausted, Nino could attest to that, but Adrien had spent days as a supervillain. Now that the magical energy had left him, he did not just 'fall asleep'. He all but passed out, in the blink of an eye. His best friend sighed in relief when he saw his head tilt to the side and squish Plagg. The Kwami did not whine about being crushed. Copycat relaxed a little.

"Finally," he murmured.

Nino nodded, sipping his now lukewarm cocoa.

A few minutes later, mister Agreste joined them, slipping into the room in perfect silence. Much to the teenager's surprise, he froze when he saw Adrien sleeping, and sighed in relief too. The man seemed to forget about everyone but his son. He crossed the room, leaning down to push an arm under Adrien's knees and another behind his back.

"Let's put you to bed," he murmured when Adrien shifted and blinked.

Nino's friend acquiesced, drowsy, then immediately nodded off. His father lifted him up, stumbling for a second under the teenager's full weight. He recovered his balance quickly enough. Plagg flew up and hovered next to them, frowning. He followed mister Agreste as he left the room with Adrien in his arms.

Theo huffed. Nino shook his head. Aurore stared at them in mild confusion.

"What is your problem with mister Agreste?" she asked.

Copycat and Nino exchanged looks. If she did not get it, explaining was not going to be simple. Not that the boy did not have a long list of problems to mention, but he did not know where to start.

"He at least cares a _little_ ," Theo muttered.

Aurore waited for more explanations. When they didn't come, she returned to eating. She wolfed down food in a very refined way.

People came and went. Alix ran in and out, with Jalil chasing after her and talking her ears off. Her brother was none too pleased about her risking her life. Alya returned to inform Nino his father was on his way, then raced back to her parents.

A quarter of an hour after he had walked out to carry Adrien to bed, mister Agreste finally came back. He was holding a blue scarf that Nino instantly recognized.

"That's-" the teenager exclaimed, turning to the man.

Adrien's father ignored him and crossed the room. He dropped the scarf on Theo's knees.

"Congratulations, mister Barbot," he said. "You've been promoted."

And he threw a silvery ring to the bewildered sculptor.

###


	38. Chapter 38

There was quite a lot of yelling going on. Most of it came from Nino, but Alya was far from silent. Tiny, squishy and angry Plagg was bumping against mister Agreste, over and over again, with no effect whatsoever.

"You absolute _IDIOT_ ," the tiny god screamed. "We _need_ Chat Noir! You are setting everyone up for _failure_."

The rotten jerk that was Gabriel Agreste just rolled his eyes and ignored the Kwami.

Copycat was staring at the ring in his hands, and had not made a single comment about his so-called 'promotion', nor about how the Miraculous rightfully belonged to Chat Noir, which meant to Adrien. Aurore, who wanted no part in the argument, had fluttered away to distract everyone's parents.

Alix was wrapping her hands in napkins in case someone needed to be punched in the face. Someone needed a firm reminder that temporary possession by an evil spirit was no excuse for being the worst father in history.

"Can't you _trust_ Adrien for a change?" Nino was arguing. "He has been saving the city for months! He saved all of us. He's great at it! He doesn't deserve to be packed in a car and sent away when he's most needed!"

Mister Agreste replied to that with an exasperated sigh.

"I decide what's best for my son," he retorted, without even raising his voice.

"What about you let _him_ decide what's best? All he ever does is do what you say!"

"Clearly not," Agreste murmured, turning away from Nino to talk to Theo instead. "You'll have to transform as Copycat to keep the teenage appearance. Some of Makko's power can possibly be transferred to miss Borell, however. The Miraculous should give you enough strength on its own."

Nino didn't take kindly to being ignored. He grabbed mister Agreste by the shoulder, forcing him to look at him.

"Hey, will you _listen to me_ for a second? Like it or not, he's a hero! How do you think having his own DAD spit on that will make him feel?"

The man pursed his lips.

Alya decided to chime in.

"It's who he _is_. You can't just take that away from him! You haven't met him as Chat Noir, you don't know how great of a superhero he is, how great of a _person_ he is!"

" _Once again_ ," the designer replied, " _I_ decide what is _best_ for my son."

"Well guess what!" Alix exclaimed. "Your decisions _suck_! All you do is make Adrien miserable! HE GOT TURNED INTO A VILLAIN OVER YOU BEING -"

Copycat grabbed her sleeve and pulled her to the side so she would shut up. She did not let that faze her.

"A TOTAL ASS! You just want a pretty doll you can make money off, not a son! You didn't even notice he was Chat Noir until this week! You-"

Copycat dug his claws through her sleeve. She gasped, winced, frowned at him, and turned back to Gabriel. He was foaming at the mouth.

"DO NOT TRY AND TELL ME WHAT. IS. BEST. FOR. MY. SON," he roared. "IF YOU TAKE ISSUE WITH THE WAY I RAISE HIM, BY ALL MEANS GO ASK HIS HERO MOTHER TO PARENT HIM. I'LL LEND YOU A SHOVEL."

The room went silent.

For a few seconds, all you could hear was mister Agreste's erratic breathing. Alya was gaping, Nino wincing, and Theo digging holes into Alix's arm. Then, glowing butterflies erupted out of everyone, forcing Copycat to untransform. They coalesced into a ball of pink light. It grew wings, and arms, and legs, gradually taking a Kwami's shape. The sprite flew to mister Agreste and hovered in front of his face, bumping against his forehead once. She moved back, and waited for him to calm down.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and breathed in, then raised a hand and held it right under Makko, so she could land on it.

"I'm fine," he told her, with a little tap under her feet that made her jump and beat her wings.

Plagg circled them, staring at the translucent Kwami with wide eyes. He inched closer, but Makko showed no sign of noticing him. She only looked at mister Agreste, who patted her legs again. This time, she dissolved into dozens of butterflies. They flew back to everyone, diving into their exposed skins and vanishing in a matter of seconds.

"She trusts you," Plagg commented.

"Why wouldn't she? I'm her _chosen_ ," mister Agreste snapped. He chewed the inside of his cheeks. "And so are four teenagers and a hobbyist hero, apparently, but desperate times call for desperate measures."

"But desperate measures don't include _my_ chosen."

"Copycat has a good grasp of Chat Noir's skill set. He's the best option we have right now, and we will _not_ discuss sending Adrien against Hawk Moth again. That's _final_."

The Kwami huffed but flew to Theo. He landed on the table next to him, and peeked back at the ring and scarf. The sculptor breathed in and transformed back, then slipped the ring on his gloved finger.

"Are Ladybug's parents on their way?" he asked. "Sabine and Tom? They were at the hotel earlier."

"They are on their way," Alya replied. "I had my mom call them."

"Well then I'm going to wait for them and promise them to get their daughter back," Copycat announced, his voice strangled. "So what do I say to transform, again?"

"Claws out!" Alya and Nino announced.

"'Plagg, transform me," mister Agreste replied at the same time.

"You say _'I have camembert'_ ," the Kwami corrected.

###

Schedule Conflict waited, and waited, and waited. She was lying in a locked room of the mansion's basement, on a comfortable mattress, but in the basement all the same. She couldn't move - she had Miss Wifi to thank for that - but she could see, and hear, and think.

She had so many things to do.

She needed a laptop. A tablet, maybe. The butterfly was calling to her.

 _Places to be, people to see._

Hawk Moth was talking to her, but his voice had changed. Now, it was the girl. She wanted Schedule Conflict to free herself, to find Adrien, to go after the last Miraculous, but that would be delayed until further notice.

"Miss Wifi's magic will wear down," miss Dupain-Cheng said. "It's only a matter of time. Exhaustion will hit Alya sooner or later, and then you will have to get out, and get out quickly. Without a weapon, you are useless."

Schedule Conflict could not _plan_ for it, since she had no time frame to work with. She did not even know how long she had been locked up. She had tried counting the seconds and had managed to for twenty-six minutes, only to be forced to admit that there was no way her timekeeping was accurate. There was no sunlight, not a single clock around, she couldn't look down at her watch.

It was driving her _crazy_.

After an eternity, she heard the lock turn. The door opened and closed. It took ten footsteps for her visitor to get to her and show himself. Relief and fear flooded her.

 _Gabriel._

He sighed, looking distinctly sorry, and leaned down to take her hand. He only brushed the tips of her fingers.

"I thought the Akuma would have come back to you by now. I figure it is close by. I have not found it"

Nathalie felt a spark run through her, and she sank into the mattress as her muscles relaxed. Her clothes shifted, her hair fell down on her face. She was free.

Her first move was to roll to the side and punch him. He grabbed her arm, locking it into place in a burst of pink light that crackled and felt like a static shock. Her muscles went rigid again, though the paralysis did not impact her entire body. Her face could move, as well as her shoulders. Her hands and legs were frozen, however. She thrashed a little, then she felt the darkness being sucked out of her through the wrist Gabriel was holding. Her thoughts cleared, for the most part. She still felt that _something_ clawing at her, trying to twist her and feed from her.

"What… How do you…" she murmured.

Gabriel's eyes glazed over, then he looked to the wall, or rather 'through the wall'. That was where the butterfly was. He took a phone out of his pocket - an older model than the one she had seen shattered on her kitchen table hours earlier - and pushed it under Nathalie's left hand, the one that was pressed to the mattress to support her weight. The Akuma, who had so far been immobile and lying in wait, awoke. Nathalie could feel it flitter in the staircase, and fly closer and closer to them. It landed behind the closed door and crawled under it, then shook its wings and hurried to the phone.

Mister Agreste snatched it between two fingers before it could dive into the phone.

Nathalie stared in horror, disgusted by the creature (as it no longer had a hold on her mind), and terrified by Gabriel. Maybe that teenage girl was Hawk Moth now, but she still did not understand what her employer was. He had been possessed, that much was clear, but his being freed did not make him _normal_. His catching demons with his bare hands did not help.

"I am going to free you from that thing," he said. "But, before I do, I need to make sure you can take it. I am not able to make you forget what happened. Right now, the Akuma shields your emotions, and you can't feel the full impact of Schedule Conflict's actions…"

Like ordering the adult population of Paris to sit on their balconies and windows, with the knowledge that the next instruction would be asking them to jump.

" _What happened to mister Barbot?_ " Nathalie exclaimed as that memory came back to her. "I ordered him to-"

"He is fine. He was rescued, and is upstairs right now. Also, being Copycat, his injuries would have been minimal."

Nathalie tried to calm her thumping heart and to stop hyperventilating. Her employer shook his head and sighed.

"It might be wiser to keep you possessed and detained until someone with sufficient powers is available to exorcise the Akuma. It would mean waiting for Hawk Moth to be defeated, if he ever is."

"You want t-to allow that creature to control me again," she murmured.

" _Only_ if you feel that the memories would be too hard to take. Akuma victims have always been allowed to forget. It's a mercy the heroes granted since the very first incarnation of Ladybug. Remembering is often traumatic."

She shuddered and _had_ to change topics rather than to think about the last few hours in more details.

 **"** How did you… How are you even able to… pull the magic out?"

She knew what those butterflies did to a person. She had seen Adrien resist the influence with much more success than her, but she had the feeling the darkness had moved from her to Gabriel, not vanished, and she doubted he was immune to it.

She knew he could put on a good show.

"It's a long story," he said. "Makko… The pink creature you have s-"

"I'm aware of what Kwamis are. I saw Chat Noir's."

Gabriel pursed his lips and gave her a sharp nod.

"She is possessed by Hawk Moth, who himself is an Akuma. She has been cutting her magic to pieces to weaken him, and handing it out to humans such as me, or Adrien's friends. I happen to have a crippled form of her ability to absorb Akuma magic, among others tricks."

He pointed at her paralyzed hands. He was still holding her wrist, and she tried to pull away in disgust. Of course, it did not work. Both of her hands were pinned into place. She still wanted to get _away_. She remembered every second spent with him as Hawk Moth. She remembered Schedule Conflict's passivity and bottled anger, and her acceptance of every order. She remembered slipping out of the Akuma's control in front of him, and being 'helped' to get enraged again.

Even if she could not move, Gabriel squeezed her wrist harder.

"As I was saying, it could be easier for you to remain possessed until your memory can be erased. Clearly, the experience took a toll on you."

"I-I. _It does not mean I'd voluntarily chose to be possessed!_ Are you even hearing yourself? Do you realize how dangerous it would be to let me keep those powers? I ordered all of P-Paris to-"

"I know. I was there. It would still be easier."

She stared at his hand and shook every mobile part of her arm in an effort to move away.

"Easier for _whom_? You are so set on convincing me it would be easier to forget everything that you would risk everyone's lives and minds! Are you sure it is not easier for _you_ if no one remembers what _you_ have done?"

He stared at her in silence, face devoid of expression.

She glared back.

"It. Was. Not. Me," he said. "He could wear my skin in and out of costume."

"It was still your words he used," she snapped back, her anger rising.

He crushed her arm then slowly, reluctantly let go of it. He wrapped his hand around the Akuma. Black magic spread around his balled fist, only to be absorbed by his skin. Nathalie felt her red butterfly mask vanish. Her clothes changed color. Schedule Conflict was gone.

Her memories remained.

###


	39. Chapter 39

Copycat's reassurances had not been quite enough to calm Marinette's parents down, so Alya was trying to comfort them too. She had a million arguments and ten millions words and enough fake confidence to win a world record, and it still was not enough.

She had no idea what to say to them. Her promises sounded empty (most likely because they were). All she had was hope, and hope was not tangible.

Somehow, she didn't think telling them 'it took ten years but look, mister Agreste was freed' would help much. But things had been different for him: everyone had assumed he had turned evil. They had not known his Kwami had been corrupted. No one had known how much he needed help. No one had known who Argus was, and it had allowed Hawk Moth to enjoy a leisurely life with a possessed Kwami and mind-controlled millionaire, in a comfortable home where his every need was met. Ladybug's powers were amazing, but Marinette was a teenager with no resources. Lying low would not be an option. Hawk Moth would not be able to hide. It meant Marinette would be found, sooner than later. And then they would _rescue_ her and Makko.

Easy as pie.

Then again, Alix's father had tried to drag her home and, having turned transparent after grabbing her wrist, had discovered that touching his daughter's hands was no longer an option. It comforted him in his opinion that she had to be dragged away from the situation. The scene had also made every other parent and sibling freak out.

None of them were as terrified as the Dupain-Cheng.

Afraid or not, they were trying to come up with solutions.

"You said you got that magic _back_ , not that you kept them since you were Lady Wifi," Sabine pointed out. "Can't the powers be given to someone else? To us? You children cannot and should not fight this battle."

Alya had no idea what to answer to that. For a start, she disagreed with the sentiment. On top of that, the only person with clear answers on Makko and Hawk moth was mister Agreste, who had slipped away while Copycat was transforming into the real Chat Noir.

"I don't know," she replied, pleading. "But we need to do this. We know how to work together, all of us. The skills we have..."

She realized this was something everyone needed to hear. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and transformed. The room went silent (even Alix, who had been 'explaining' her father and brother exactly what she thought of their attempts to protect her).

Miss Wifi jumped on the dinner table.

"We _need_ to do this," she repeated. " _We_ need to. We know how to work together. We were _chosen_ because those powers fit who we are, and the way we think. We just _know_ what to do with them. More importantly, we complete each other. We saw that when we fought Plot Hole. If the powers were taken from us and given to someone else, they would not work this well. We would have less of a chance of rescuing Marinette. Of rescuing _Ladybug_."

She looked around to watch the reactions to her speech. Nino's dad was patting his son's shoulder and nodding, but Alya's own parents were just as worried as before. Marinette's father shook his head, resigned. Sabine took a step forward.

"We cannot ask this from you. There has to be another way. While it's one thing to learn that one's daughter it a superhero and has been for months, and to be proud of what she accomplished… One cannot ask other children to handle that kind of responsibility. If it's in any way possible, we should be the ones to shoulder it, as Marinette's parents. We are here to protect her."

"A noble sentiment," a terse female voice cut in from the entrance. They all turned to see Nathalie Sancoeur, who was standing by the door, her eyes turned to a tablet she was tapping with quick fingers. "But sentiment unfortunately does not apply to reality. Those powers have been dispatched by a sentient entity who does not care the slightest bit about your opinion, only about efficiency. She is unlikely to reallocate them because you feel inclined to fight this battle."

Mister Agreste was standing behind her, though he was still in the hallway where most people could not notice him, and looked into the distance with unconcealed boredom.

"You are _that woman_ ," Jalil exclaimed.

"My apologies for any trouble I might have caused you as…" - She clicked her tongue. - "Schedule Conflict. Be assured that I have been freed from the Akuma's influence."

Gabriel had freed her, just like he had freed his son. After having insisted time and time again that he could not take her memories of her possession away. Which meant that she remembered everything. Or that he had lied. That was a distinct possibility.

"Are you sure of that?" Jalil's father snapped at miss Sancoeur. "Because my understanding of the situation was that the one hero able to perform _that_ miracle is otherwise occupied."

"Yes, Kubdel, she is sure," mister Agreste drawled, walking into the room.

He ignored everyone and went straight to the window, while all hell broke lose.

Alya had no idea who had leaked the news that he had been Hawk Moth up to a few hours before - actually, that could only be Alix - but no one took kindly to his presence. There was yelling, there was outrage, there was some whispering when Nino's father asked his son what the hell was going on. Gabriel paid no mind to them, turned to the window with his hands clasped behind his back. He remained silent as Nathalie joined him, faced the guests, and stared them down.

"I am going to have to ask you to either watch your tone or leave," she said. "In which case I would be happy to escort you outside."

"Gee, are you _sure_ you were evilized?" Alix asked.

Aurore elbowed her in the shoulder.

"What?" the skater snapped with a glare at the blonde. "You really can't tell the difference. She-"

Marinette's mother walked past her, stopping on her way to softly press a hand on Alix's shoulder. The girl's mouth snapped shut. Sabine joined mister Agreste by the window and waited for him to turn.

His back tensed. He pretended not to notice her for a handful of seconds. Then, he faced her.

"Mrs Dupain-Cheng."

"Mister Agreste," she replied, holding her hand out. "Pleased to meet you."

There was a hint of surprise on his face, quickly wiped out, then he shook her hand. His shoulders relaxed a little.

"Likewise."

"I have been told you have the best understanding of my daughter's predicament out of everyone here. I'd like to hear your opinion on the situation, and the role of the children in it."

Gabriel stared at her. Alya jumped to them, landing next to the man.

"I could _possibly_ persuade Makko to take her magic back," he told Marinette's mother. "As for getting her to lend it to _others_ , that's an entirely different issue. Still, if you manage to convince her of your-"

Alya winced. She should have guessed. Adrien was in a 'nondescript car' traveling to an 'undisclosed country' so he would be out of Hawk Moth's reach. Of _course_ mister Agreste was going to side with the adults. He had told Alya she would be needed to snap Marinette out of her mind-controlled state, but he had said the same about his son, before stealing his Miraculous and sending him away.

Miss Sancoeur inched closer.

"If I might hazard a comment, sir, the task _he_ gave me was to separate the 'magic thieves' so he could target them one by one. It was the whole point of getting their relatives to the Grand Paris. If we take their powers away and send them home, they will be vulnerable. He will attack them immediately."

Gabriel whirled to her and blanched when she recoiled. She composed herself and so did he, but Alya had spotted their reactions and knew she was not the only one. When mister Agreste turned to Sabine again, he was even colder than when he had entered the room.

He clicked his tongue.

"I am afraid you have your answer," he commented. "I'm going to leave the problem in Chat Noir's very capable hands, if you don't mind. Should you decide to remove the children's powers, I'll be in my office."

He left the room, ignoring the glares and questions he received on the way.

###

"Maybe," Marinette's father suggested, "you could unfreeze everyone now."

Alya glared.

"I asked them to calm down. Nicely. Seven times. My best friend is out here and possessed, I have better things to do than to manage mister Kubdel's fighting with Nino's dad. I have a rescue to plan."

Tom stared at her and tried to voice an objection.

"Dude, don't," Nino cut in. "She's going to pause you again. With all due respect and all that."

Both of Marinette's parents winced. Alya sighed.

"I only freed the two of you because I thought you would want to know what was going on. Everyone else is just… Agh!"

She shook her head and raised her hands in aggravation.

"We have all been dragged into this from the moment we turned into supervillains and we have to see it through to the end. I know everyone is afraid. But my family was _already_ attacked, in our own home, and it is going to keep happening and-"

Copycat grabbed both her shoulders from behind and pulled her out of her chair.

"Okay, that's enough, you take a break now."

"I _what_?"

"You are going into full soldier mode. Fifteen year old kids don't get to go into full soldier mode. Break. Now. Go to the kitchen grab some candy. Take your boyfriend with you. Go, go."

"I'm not her boyfriend!" Nino exclaimed, as the only non-paralyzed boy in the room.

"He's not my boyfriend!" she yelped too.

She heard Theo snort, but couldn't see the look on his face, as he was lifting her from the ground by the armpits and carrying her to the door. She was willing to bet the idiot had annoyed her on purpose, to distract her from the war plans. And it had worked, too, for a second.

Theo dropped her in the hallway and shoved Nino out after her. He slammed the door.

She grumbled.

"He has a point," Nino said.

"Maybe. Maybe," she replied, starting to pace. "I still just feel like we're wasting time doing nothing. And I need to help. It's _Marinette._ It'd move mountains for her. God knows she moved mountains for _me_."

"I know," Nino murmured, squeezing her shoulder. "But come on. We've been discussing power interactions for half an hour and I don't think we'll use a single move we came up with. We can't _plan_ for a fight like that."

"Of course we can. A little."

She shook her head, sighing,.

"Come on, I'd like to check on mister Agreste. He didn't look well earlier."

Nino grimaced, but followed her.

"Have you seen how his assistant jumped away?"

"I did. She remembers."

Her friend shuddered. They were both happy, so very happy not to remember their time as villains. Nino had made comments on his sending all of the adults of Paris into the stratosphere, and in how much danger they had all been. Alya knew he had not wanted to get his powers back.

Miss Sancoeur's actions as Schedule Conflict were equally frightening, and she had been by Hawk Moth's side, not just controlled from a distance. She would have been the best candidate for erased memories.

They made their way to mister Agreste's office, only to find it empty. They heard his voice, however, from a window open on the courtyard.

"Yes," he was saying, in a curt voice. "You do that right now. Keep me updated."

Alya looked out, and saw him walk back into the mansion. She wrinkled her nose, grabbing Nino's arm, and dragged him from room to room until they found mister Agreste, a good ten minutes and fifty-two rooms later (it was entirely possible that they had circled the same rooms for most of that time).

Gabriel was sitting in a sofa, a hand raised in front of his face. He was playing with his wife's necklace, staring at the pendant as it swayed back and forth before him. He didn't turn when Alya and Nino entered, nor when the blogger joined him.

"Mister Agreste?" she said, staying two feet away to give him space.

She had been worried for him since they had arrived at the mansion, and only grew more anxious the more she observed him.

He sighed, shaking his head, and wrapped the golden chain around his hand.

"Are you okay?" Alya asked, giving up on personal space and joining him.

She put a hand on his shoulder.

He fell apart.

###

Tikki stared at Makko as her sister retrieved a pot of honey from a cupboard, opened it, and dug into it with a spoon.

Hawk Moth had retreated to a luxury apartment with designer furniture, and the distinct feeling of loneliness that came with a place barely lived in. There was no dust. There was no sign of the place being occupied either, not a book out of place, not a cup on the coffee table, nothing. The kitchen was a mess. When they had arrived, the chairs had been upturned, the table broken, several jars shattered with their contents splattered on the walls.

Makko - _Hawk Moth_ \- had paid no mind to that. She had forced Marinette into a chair and started looking for food.

Tikki's chosen, untransformed, was still on that chair, staring straight in front of her, awaiting instructions. She was perfectly hypnotized, having been given no chance to resist. Exhausted as Marinette had been when she had grabbed the butterfly Miraculous, she could have been knocked over with a feather.

The red Kwami hovered in the air, flying closer to her sister.

She had not known they could fall prey to Akumas, even one as old and powerful as Hawk Moth. There was not a single doubt that Makko had let him in, however: the Miraculous could not have been turned into a fetish without its Kwami's approval.

"What happened?" Tikki murmured. "Makko… What happened to you?"

"I'm not Makko," her sister retorted, turning blackish eyes to her. "Makko has seen the light. She's gone. There's just me now."

Tikki landed next to her, to take a closer look at the corruption glimmering over her skin, at the violet of her irises and the deep black that surrounded them.

There was so much darkness there that Tikki knew she could never purge it all. Not in a thousand years. They had never been able to exorcise Hawk Moth. He had been just as powerful as them when they had been born. They had only weakened him, over and over again.

"How did he do it? How did he trick you?"

Makko rolled her eyes and swallowed a spoonful of honey.

"Was it all over Aricia?" Tikki insisted.

That got a reaction out of her sister - barely a twitch - but it was enough for the red Kwami to be sure she was talking to a corrupted, twisted version of her sister, not just to the monster who had assumed control.

"You went back in time to bring her back," Tikki said.

"Noooo, I didn't," Makko replied in a sing-song voice. "Don't be silly. I know how my powers work. You don't bring the dead back."

"Then _why_? Plagg told me you and Argus went back _twice,_ and then wanted to try again!"

"We went back twice. So Gabriel could say goodbye to Aricia before she died. He held her hand. It took two tries to go back far enough."

Tikki stared at her, feeling queasy. Makko licked her spoon then dropped it into the honey again, toying with it.

"What about the third trip you wanted to attempt?" the red Kwami asked.

 _The one where Argus offered to be used as energy so Clover could go back far enough to rescue Aricia._

"Oh, that was a ploy to trap Clover thirty minutes into the future," Makko explained. "I needed him out of the way. See, the thing about Clover… You know he was there during the robbery, with Aricia and Chat Noir? After the fight, Chat Noir had to run off because he was about to untransform. And then Clover just haaaaaaad to call his wife while Aricia escorted the robbers out. And you know what? They had an accomplice among the hostages. Soooooo, while _Clover was on the phone_ , that accomplice _shot them both_."

All of the pieces clicked at once. Bullets would barely have scratched Zetta's chosen. Quantic magic made him all but invulnerable. But Aricia? Aricia only had access to half of Makko's power, the rest having been given to Argus.

Makko sucked on the spoon, chewed it, and dropped it back into the pot.

"It would have taken him threeeee steps to shield her. Three. Had he paid attention. But no, no, no. Clover had to flirt with his stupid human."

The first thing Hawk Moth had done after 'possessing Argus' had been to go after Clover's family.

"And I wasn't going to hold it against him," Makko continued. "But then I had to try and try to convince him and Felix to _do things my way_ , to take Aricia to Argus because Gabriel had aaaaaaaaaaaaaaalll of my time powers and we could have frozen her until we found a better solution, but did they listen? Noooooo. Zetta thinks he is sooooo wise and his heroes are just like him. And then, it was. Tooooo. Laaaate!" she concluded in a cheerful tone.

She giggled.

Tikki sighed.

That was the deal Hawk Moth had offered. Making Clover suffer through similar losses. It only ever took a second of doubt for an Akuma to anchor itself into someone's mind.

Makko put the spoon down on the kitchen counter. Black magic whirled over her, and pink sparkles glimmering in front of her face. She flew up, then dove into Marinette's balled fist.

Tikki could only watch, helpless, as Marinette transformed into her version of Hawk Moth. The girl stood, smirking, a butterfly of pink light appearing around her eyes. She turned to the window.

" _Shroud_ ," she told the victim who was undoubtedly listening to her somewhere in Paris. "I have a deal for you."

###


	40. Chapter 40

Adrien's one mistake had been naivety.

He had known he had _so much_ to do, but he had been so exhausted that the notion of sleeping had been irresistible. As a matter of fact, he did not remember dozing off, just waking up in his father's arms as Gabriel lifted him from the sofa. "Let's put you to bed," he had murmured. He had showed concern. Adrien had thought that felt nice. For the first time in years, his father was himself again, free from the monster embedded in his mind, and maybe there was something left of his heart.

Of course, he should have remembered the man played his cards close to his chest. He should have remembered Gabriel was not a man who _suggested_ , but _enforced_.

Adrien had known his father had some of Makko's powers, namely the ability to cleanse Akumas. He had not realized that, along with the Akuma's magic, Gabriel had absorbed Picture's Perfect butterfly and his abilities. That was something Adrien had figured out when he had found himself paralyzed from head to toes in a flash of pink light.

It had taken him a few seconds to _really_ understand what had happened. He had not wanted to believe it. But then, Plagg had started hurling insults at Gabriel, and his father had taken the Miraculous from his finger. It had been excruciating to be frozen and to listen to his Kwami argue with Gabriel, to be carried to the courtyard, where their driver was waiting next to an old Ford Fiesta. Not the limo, not the Mercedes: the most common, most inconspicuous car to be found in Paris.

"Get him away," Gabriel had ordered, as he pushed Adrien into the car like one would have done with a doll, adjusting the passenger seat instead of releasing the magic that held the teenager still. "Don't tell me where you go, don't stop, avoid large cities. Contact me if there is trouble. If not, watch the news for signs of more magic."

"Will he stay like that for long?" the Gorilla had asked. "He's going to start moving again, right?"

"The magic will wear off. Don't let it surprise you."

Gabriel and his employee had exchanged a few more words, ignoring Plagg's hissing and yelling. Then Adrien's father had leaned down.

"Maybe when you get to my age and have children of your own, you will understand why I did this. Right now…"

He had looked away, scowling, then sighed.

"Stay safe. Behave. Don't even _think_ about coming back before Hawk Moth is dealt with."

And he had left. Adrien, paralyzed, had not been able to watch him go. He had heard Plagg's voice grow quieter as the Kwami followed Gabriel to the house. And then the car had rocked from left to right under the weight of the chauffeur. The man had started the engine and driven through the gates.

It took a long, _long_ while for the paralysis to be lifted. The car had crossed most of Paris. Adrien had stared at the second floor of the buildings they had driven past the entire way, as his head was turned to the window. He knew where they were. He knew those buildings, he knew those roofs. He patrolled them. He was trying to recognize a blueish facade when he felt his muscles relax.

He did not move. Not by an inch.

It would be easier to escape if he waited for a good opportunity. If the Gorilla did not notice he was free, he would have a better chance.

He tried to come up with an idea, which he should have done earlier. He had been too busy trying not to think about his father, and focusing on the architecture instead.

A solution presented itself when they drove past a police car. Adrien jumped up, opening the car window and waving an arm through it.

"HELP ME!" he yelled. "HELP!"

That did the trick. Not three minutes later, he was helped out of the car by a policeman, while his partner made the Gorilla walk out with his hands on his head. Adrien felt guilty. It had been a downright evil move. Still. Chat Noir was needed.

"It's my boss' son!" the chauffeur exclaimed. "The kid is having a tantrum, he doesn't want to go to Brussels for the photoshoot his dad arranged!"

"And we can verify that?"

"Yeah! Call Gabriel Agreste and check you-"

Adrien started running. Maybe he didn't have superpowers, but basketball and fencing had given him enough stamina to sprint way faster and more easily than most people. It was also rare to find cops who could jump above obstacles or climb on them, Yamakasi style.

"ADRIEN YOU COME BACK HERE!" he heard the Gorilla scream.

He did not listen, just ran, scaling the first low wall he spotted and dropping down on the other side, only to race down the alley he had landed in, find fire stairs, and climb to the roof. From there, it was easy enough to get away and out of sight.

He climbed down near the closest bus station.

###

Tikki attacked Marinette.

There was nothing she could do but bump against her and pass through her, and that was not enough to distract Hawk Moth and Makko from their goal. Marinette kept talking. A girl possessed by a kwami possessed by a monster, intent on creating yet another puppet for himself.

Marinette swatted Tikki away.

"You know the drill, don't you?" she told her target. The butterfly outline around her eyes shone brighter. "I give you what you want, and you give me Chat Noir's Miraculous. It should be easy for you."

For a second or so, Tikki thought she was talking to one of her recent victims. Alya, Nino, Alix, or maybe even Jalil Kubdel or Xavier Ramier. 'You know the drill'. Then she realized who Hawk Moth was the most likely to target.

She attacked Marinette again, trying to keep her from talking, to break the mental link she had established with 'Shroud'. The teenager waved a hand to chase her away, then grabbed her and held her between hands covered in dark magic. It kept Tikki from escaping by turning ethereal, just like Plot Hole's ink cage had done.

"You just want to protect them," Marinette said, staring at the window. "But they never listen, do they? For all of Alice's promises that she would stay home with your son while you were gone, she still _had_ to transform into Aricia and get herself killed. And the boy… How he takes after her..."

She was trying to possess _Gabriel Agreste_. The man had gone straight from losing his wife to being trapped in his own body for years, with an Akuma watching his every move and using him as a puppet. Now that he had been freed, he had to be at his most vulnerable. There was no saying what he remembered from Hawk Moth's actions using his body.

"Makko," Tikki pleaded, horrified. "Don't do this! Argus is your _chosen_!"

It was such a sacred bond that the mere idea of hurting her own hero made Tikki's skin crawl. She hoped something in her sister was still aware of that, enough to fight the darkness in her. Marinette did not even pause.

"You will get to shield them," she promised, her voice dripping with honey. "If they won't listen to reason and won't keep themselves safe, then it is only natural to force their hand, to cloak them from danger. You will keep them safe, even from me. I will spare whomever your powers protect. Even the boy."

There was a silence. Marinette smiled.

"Even the boy," she repeated.

###

Alya put her hand on mister Agreste's shoulder and felt it crease like empty cloth. The sensation was so weird that she did not understand what she was touching, not immediately. It was only when she saw the man's suit crumple and collapse that the situation registered. Gabriel's face and hair turned into strips of of grey fabric, the shape of him falling apart as the cloth dropped down to the sofa.

"AKUMA!" Nino yelled, grabbing her wrist and running to the door.

She stumbled after him and looked back. The strips of fabric were floating up. They twirled in the air, then flew straight towards them. Alya slammed the door as she passed through it.

"This way!" she exclaimed, pulling Nino towards the hallway.

She needed to get back to the dining room, to warn everyone and free those she had paused.

She should have kept a closer watch on Adrien's father. She had _seen_ something was amiss. She had known he was holding on by a thread. But she had focused on battle preparations and ridiculous plans they would never use. And why would they never use them? Because they had not planned for a new supervillain to be created right under their noses. If she had taken a minute to question if letting Gabriel seclude himself was a good idea, maybe he would not have been corrupted.

 _Years possessed_ , she told herself. _Years sharing his skin with a monster who would have stopped at nothing._

She should have known he would be vulnerable. They all should have known. Instead, they had antagonized him, dismissing his opinions and wishes. They had been angry at him, or worse: afraid of him. Marinette's mother had been the only one to treat him with real respect. His own assistant was scared of him.

They all should have known. It was the perfect storm, the one they had all gone through when Hawk Moth had targeted them.

Nino's hand was crushing her wrist. He peeked at her as they ran.

"We have to-"

The door they were walking past opened and a sheet of beige fabric flew past them, wrapping itself around Nino. He tried to fight it off while Alya grabbed the cloth and attempted to pry it away, but in vain. The fabric whirled around the boy until it covered him from head to toe, in a tight cocoon that Alya would have needed a blade to cut. Nino was not moving anymore.

"Nonononono!" she wailed, pulling on the fabric.

Then she noticed motion behind her. She jumped away and turned to find herself face to face with a ghost.

Her sisters loved to disguise themselves. They would throw some old bed sheets on and run around their apartment, howling and hiding behind doors to scare people with deafening 'boos'. It was adorable (though it grew tiring after a few hours).

The same concept, applied to mister Agreste, was considerably more terrifying. He was just a silhouette of black fog with layers of white cloth hanging around its frame. His ice blue eyes were shining through a slit between the strips of fabric wrapped around his face. His wife's necklace was dangling between the tendrils of dark fog his hand had turned into.

Pieces of cloth fell off his shoulders and shot through the air, curling around Alya's arm. The teenager tore them away and ran, getting her phone out of her pocket. She dove into the screen just as beige curtains dropped from the ceiling and fell on her.

###


	41. Chapter 41

Alya jumped out of Sabine's phone, straight into the dining room, to find herself in the middle of a storm. She was caught into a whirlwind and thrown against the wall, in the corner of the room. She landed among cutlery and shattered dishes, banging her head against the wall, and her first thought was to transform so that kind of blow would not hurt so much. She looked around as her costume drew itself on.

Sunny Weather was floating in the middle of the room, spinning into place with her umbrella pointed in front of her, to maintain a tornado around her and everyone else. The lamps had been torn from the ceiling and the food and dishes from the table, and broken cups, spoons and glass shards were hurled around by the whirlwind, along with much larger sheets of fabric that Aurore was trying to keep at bay. The chairs were upturned, some of them broken. The curtains were gone.

Alya spotted three bundles of cloth next to the windows: people wrapped in cocoons, just like Nino. One of them was considerably larger than all others - Marinette's father, most likely - but she just could not tell who the others were.

She tried to stand, leaning against the wall and shielding her face to protect herself against the shards of china and glass flying in every direction.

She couldn't see Sabine, nor Copycat, nor her sisters. Tinier bundles of fabric were wrapped around the dinner table's legs, and her mother was trying to pry one of them free. Alya's stomach jumped in her chest, and she tried to dive through Aurore's tornado, only to be thrown aside again.

"HELP ALYA IN!" Alix screamed.

She was holding a knife with both hands, pushing its blade into the spinning wind to try to slice through the magical cloth trapped inside the cyclone. She was not the only one: Jalil and Nino's father were trying the same strategy. As far as Alya could tell, there were no other knives to be used, and Jalil's was a butter knife. Every time something hit their blades, the two men reeled. Alix stumbled and spun. Her father had to steady her. It would have been simpler if the blade had been in _his_ hands, but Alya figured Alix had been the one to come up with the knives idea, and had not surrendered her weapon.

Mister Kubdel dropped to the floor, reaching for Alya under the tornado. She flattened herself against the tile, grabbing his arm, and tried to crawl towards him. He dragged her to the table, helped by Nino's father, then Alya's dad, until she was safe in the eye of the storm.

"Where's Chat Noir?" she gasped, looking around.

"The curtains fell on him first," mister Kubdel said. "He was right in front of the window. Then they tried to go after miss Borell… who could defend herself."

"Where is my _son_?" Nino's father asked, his voice high and strangled.

"I-I'm sorry, mister Agreste c-caught him," Alya stuttered.

"THAT'S ADRIEN'S DAD?" Alix yelled.

"Y-yeah. Yes, it is."

"Well so much for 'freed from evil'," her friend mumbled, still trying to stay upright with her knife caught in the howling tornado.

She spun to the left and fell backwards when the windwhirl lost strength. Sunny Weather dropped from the air, falling onto her knees on the dinner table. Her costume faded as she collapsed.

The pieces of drapery she had been keeping away from the group fell to the floor or hit the walls, only to fly up and dive upon the closest people. Alya's father, who had been kneeling next to the table to try to free his daughters from their cocoons, was the first to be swallowed by a swirl of fabric. It wrapped itself around him until he found himself paralysed.

The next victim was Aurore. She was lifted up by beige curtains that shoved her against a wall and plastered themselves to it, like a bas-relief tapestry.

Nino's father ran to the window and tried to open it, only to be attacked by torn bedsheets. Jalil tried to free him, but only managed to get his arm trapped inside the cocoon that formed around the man. Mister Kubdel ignored them both, forcing the window open.

The ghost that had become mister Agreste raised from discarded strips of cloth on the floor and barred his way.

Miss Wifi shot pause icons at Gabriel. They froze the layers of fabric that surrounded him, but he slipped between them, in tendrils of black fog that coalesced a step away.

Meanwhile, Alya's mother had been caught. Strips of bedsheets and towels had kept wrapping themselves around Jalil, covering not only his arm but most of his torso and one of his legs.

Mister Kubdel whirled away from Gabriel and fled, grabbing his daughter by the shoulder.

"RUN," he shouted to Alya, as his daughter stumbled behind him.

"JALIL!" Alix exclaimed, freeing herself from her father's grasp.

She slid past mister Agreste and grabbed her brother's hand. The touch only lasted a second, and her father pulled her away with his full strength, but Jalil still faded. He looked down at his transparent hand, gasped, and vanished.

"RUN," Mister Kubdel shouted again, seemingly unconcerned by his son's fate, while Alya stood there shell-shocked.

He shoved Alix forward and pulled Alya towards the door.

Something soft grabbed her wrist. It felt like compressed air, not warm, not cold, not painful. It still held firm and pinned her into place. She looked back into the eyes of Gabriel, whose ghostlike hand was closed around her arm. Pieces of cloth slipped from him to her and wrapped themselves tight around her body.

###

The Gorilla had explained the situation to the cops.

They had then explained the situation to every single other cop in town.

Adrien had gotten off his first bus to find policemen looking for him at the bus stop, and he had only barely escaped them. For the rest of his trip home, he had been forced to hide between groups of people, to hide in bushes, and to find alternate methods of transportation in the form of a rental bike.

He arrived home much later than he had hoped to get there, and had to hide before he could get to the gates, as the Bourgeois' hotel was still surrounded by cops. If he was brought to his father, he would immediately be sent away again. He had to enter the house unnoticed, and try to find Plagg.

Adrien circled the mansion, looking for a way in.

He could have scaled the walls, but only to impale himself upon the metallic fence on top of them. There was ivy on the facade, but climbing to the roof was going to take a lot more strength than Adrien had left. He still tried. If he could get to the closest window, he would maybe be able to force it open. Not that he had much hope: those were reinforced glass windows meant to keep burglars out.

Praying very hard for the passerbys not to question the strange, ragged kid climbing the wall of the Agreste mansion, he made it to the bottom of the window. He pushed it, then shoved it, then had to grab the ivy not to fall. There was no way he would get enough force to break the window open without a proper hold or something to rest on.

The ivy would never support his weight all the way to the roof. It was a miracle that he had managed to use it to get to the window.

He sighed and dropped down to the street, trying to think of a better option.

A butterfly landed on his hand.

He blinked, looking down at the white insect, only to see it vanish into his skin. A second one fluttered to him and started circling him in larger and larger circles, before flying away.

"Wait!" Adrien exclaimed. "Wait!"

He chased after the butterfly, wondering what Makko was trying to tell him, but a moving shadow on the ground caught his attention. Someone was flying above the street. Adrien looked up and saw Hawk Moth, in his new form as Marinette, cross the street and land in his home's courtyard.

Adrien forgot about the butterfly and ran back to the mansion, jumping up and grabbing the ivy to heave himself to the window again. This time, he climbed higher, finally managing to look into the house. He blanched. The dining room was a mess, with upturned furniture and broken china spread all over the floor. Not just that, however. The wall facing him looked strange, and he quickly realized that there was a layer of cloth covering it, printed to look like striped black and white wall. Under that cloth, you could see the shape of a human body, with an arm bent to the side and crossed legs. The floor was covered with bundles of camouflaged cloth, printed in trompe l'oeil to look like whatever they were resting on: the tile, the hardwood floor, the wall.

The boy blanched, trying to climb to the roof whether the ivy was strong enough for it or not. He had no idea what powers Makko had just granted him, but he hoped they would come in handy if he fell.

Just as he thought about that, a glove appeared on his right hand, in a glimmer of pink light. It was the same material as Ladybug's costume, but colbat blue. Adrien found his fingertips glued to the wall. He pulled his hand away, pressed it against the smooth brick again and, sure enough, the glove stuck to the stone.

It made climbing to the roof much easier. From there, getting into the house was simple enough. It was only a matter of walking to the closest window and giving a nice, blue glove improved punch through the glass.

Not three minutes later, Adrien was racing down to the first floor, trying to get to the main hallway. He slowed down when he heard voices, and stopped on on the landing above the main staircase.

He peeked down, hiding behind the stairs railing as best as he could, and saw Hawk Moth walk out of the dining room. The violet costume with the black spots was intact, up to the hood that was no longer torn at the ear. Her pink wings were folded behind her, and trembled a little as she walked. The cane was back, and the yoyo was attached to her belt. Both transformations, at full power.

Plagg was following her, growling deep in his throat.

"Don't think for a second I will let my powers be useful to you. Everything you touch will rot in your hands. Everything you taste will turn to ashes in your mouth."

She clicked her tongue.

"Be silent. Claws out."

Adrien watched in horror as the Kwami was sucked into the ring she was wearing on her finger. She had gotten Plagg's Miraculous. _She had gotten a third Miraculous._

The ten seconds it took for her to transform where ten seconds Adrien could not breathe and, even after that, he felt like his throat had been clenched shut. He was nauseous, with cold sweats covering his face and neck.

There was nothing he could do to save the day now, was there? As Chat Noir, he had hope. As Adrien… He tried to come up with ideas. The ring would be the easier Miraculous to get. Maybe, if enough of Makko's magic was still free, he could hope to get _some_ powers, enough to survive an encounter with Hawk Moth for however long it would take to snatch the ring.

Maybe the others were alright. He was not sure how many wrapped up bodies he had seen in the dining room, but the house had been packed with everyone's family. A lot of people would have been gathered into that room, if an Akuma had attacked.

He also had to take an eventual Akuma into consideration.

"Perrrrrfect," Hawk Moth said, stretching and looking down at herself to inspect her new appearance.

Her costume had not changed, or barely. She had claws. She was now wearing violet boots with silver tips.. That was it.

"You did a great job, Shroud," she commented, turning towards the dining room's entrance.

The 'eventual' Akuma floated out of the room, ghost-like, horrendous, terrifying. Ripped layers of grey cloth billowed behind him, revealing a dark, translucent silhouette made of dark smoke.

"You'll be upholding your end of the bargain," the ghost replied, and Adrien's heart near stopped. It was his father's voice. "They are to be spared."

Hawk Moth laughed deep in her throat.

"Don't worry. Stripped of Makko's magic, they are insects to me. I don't care whether they live or die."

Those words were met with cold silence. A moment went by.

"My son is to be spared," Gabriel added, ignoring Hawk Moth's comment.

"Of course he is, _as long as your powers protect him._ That was the deal. Uphold your end and I will uphold mine," Marinette replied, walking out of the house.

Adrien crouched behind the railing, his heart thumping in his chest. He felt faint.

He heard the noise of fabric shifting and crumpling downstairs, but no footsteps, as a man without a body would never make any kind of noise. He caught motion above him, and looked up to see strips of grey cloth slipping over the ceiling. They dropped and dove on him.

He rolled, got back to his feet, then raced to the closest window and jumped through it.

He was still on the first floor, and the courtyard had stairs of its own.

As he fell, he called Makko's name.

###


	42. Chapter 42

Alix rocked back and forth, sitting on the floor of the school hallway, trying her hardest to calm down.

Everyone was gone, _everyone_ , even Alya, who had been snatched by the creepy specter Gabriel Agreste had turned into. Miss Wifi had made it to the main doors, only to see her way barred by twirling satin sheet. Alix's father had not bothered turning back to help the blogger. Instead, he had thrown his daughter over his shoulder and kept running, racing through the gates. The ghost had only chased them on his property, without trying to follow them into the streets. Her father had only stopped in front of her school, and dragged her inside.

Everyone was gone. Chat Noir - Copycat - was gone. So was Sunny Weather, so was Nino, so was Alya, so was Jalil.

Alix had absorbed Jalil and she was not sure she could make him reappear. She was trying her hardest, focusing the best she could and praying twice as hard.

Her father was pacing, his phone in his hand. He was streaming the news. Nadja Chamack's voice was drilling holes through Alix's skull.

"JUST SHUT THAT OFF!" the teenager yelled. "I NEED TO FOCUS HERE!"

Her dad turned to her and lowered the volume, but did _not_ stop the video, and she could not take the faint buzzing of the journalist's voice.

"I'M TRYING TO BRING JALIL BACK!" she shouted. "DO YOU MIND?"

He turned the sound off.

Alix extended her arms, opened her hands, and tried to expel an energy she could not feel nor control. Her father left, looking around and vanishing, only to come back after five minutes with three chocolate bars and a soda.

"Sugar," he said. "If I understood correctly, it should help with the magic."

She opened the can and gulped down its content, then wiped her mouth on her sleeve.

"What if I can't bring him back?" she asked.

"Don't worry about it," her father replied. "Just eat, and rest."

Alix gaped, horrified by his absolute lack of concern. She had made her brother _vanish,_ VANISH, and she could not fix it, and their dad did not _care?_

"DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT?" she screamed. "How can you _say_ that?"

Her dad shook his head, grim. He looked down at his phone.

"We need to get away," he told her, ignoring the 'Jalil' topic. "The farther, the better. We are not safe here."

"I'm not going _anywhere_ ," his daughter snapped. "I'm getting Jalil out, one way or another, and then I'm going back for my _friends_. I'm not sitting this one out because you are being overprotective!"

"I am not being overpro-"

The light changed. The room went dark, bathed in a red glow that came from outside and had replaced the sunlight. Alix jumped to her feet and ran to the window. The sky had gone black, with the odd crimson cloud, and the sun was gone. A red moon had replaced it, much larger than the real one, with the craters in the wrong places.

Her father grabbed the back of her shirt and pulled her away from the window.

"I am not being overprotective," he hissed, sitting on the floor and putting his phone down between them.

He raised the volume. Nadja Chamack was commenting live footage of the city and its darkened skies.

"... just in," she was saying. "A new supervillain calling herself 'Blood Moon' is currently attacking the touristic area around the Eiffel Tower. She has been attacking the citizens of Paris and transforming them into creatures of the night. The residents are advised to stay indoors and barricade themselves."

"We need to get you far away," Alix's father continued, lowering his sleeve and massaging a turtle shaped tattoo his daughter had never noticed before. It was right under his watch.

"I just told you I-"

"We need to get _you_ far away," he repeated. "Don't you get it?"

On the phone, the footage changed to show stormy violet skies torn by multicolored strikes of lightning.

"The villain, calling himself Spectrum, is targeting the ships on the Seine," Nadja Chamack declared. She paused. "We have just received reports that all of the flowers in Paris seem to be turning carnivorous. Please destroy or stay away from any plant in your surroundings. The event seems to be caused by a supervillainess named Tigerlily, who just assumed control of the Bois de Vincennes' floral park."

"What is _happening_ out here?" Alix whispered, horrified, as the footage changed again, this time to show people holding heart-shaped toys between trembling hands.

A new headline flashed on the screen: 'Plastic Heart turns shoppers into living toys'.

Four villains on top of Gabriel Agreste. That had never happened before.

"Let's go," her father exclaimed, standing up and pulling her to her feet. He grabbed his phone. "Now."

The teenager followed him out. The bushes, next to the school's stairs, turned to them as they walked by.

A second moon - a blue one, this time - popped up. The closest windows frosted over, while a blast of burning hot wind nearly knocked Alix over. She spotted a bear sized cat on a roof and a cyborg child with led eyes and robot limbs.

"What is _happening?_ " she repeated, although she did not need an answer.

Hawk Moth was going all out. He was sending his Akumas everywhere.

"Faster," her father ordered. "Be ready to run, we don't know what's out here."

"I can't go faster! That could be dangerous for _Jalil_ , I…"

She stopped and willed her brother out with every fiber of her being. His image flickered in front of her. While he did not turn tangible, he did not vanish.

"Alix?" Jalil gasped, looking down at himself. "What is happening?"

Then he looked up and repeated those last words in a hushed, terrified whisper.

Their father, who showed no sign of relief at the sight of his son, grabbed Alix by the shoulder.

"We need to get your sister to safety _now_ ," he claimed, even though Jalil was still see-through and totally lost. "Hawk Moth won. He is unleashing Akumas right now."

His son gaped, then took a hesitant step to the side. He was solidifying from second to second. _That_ was a relief. Alix breathed out and freeing herself from her father's grasp.

"I'm going back," she announced. "I'm freeing my friends and we're going to fix this."

Her dad moved away, running his hands over his face. He looked distressed.

"Turtles are sturdy but clovers are lucky," he murmured, so low that his daughter could barely understand his words. "Turtles are sturdy but clovers are lucky."

He breathed in, collecting himself and shaking his head.

"There is no 'fixing' this," he declared. "It's over. He won, he-"

His eyes narrowed as he looked down at his phone, and he showed the screen to Alix. Nadja Chamack's flower pendant had turned black, and they watched as black magic slid over her and transformed her into yet another villain.

"He _won_ ," her father said. "It's too late. Now, your friend Alya explained with a lot of verve how the powers you children received were complementary, how Makko chose the five of you to handle this situation. This is where _you_ come in."

Alix froze. Her brother put a nearly material hand on her shoulder, shaking the other to refute what their father had said. The man did not let the gesture faze him.

Green and orange flashes flickered over the red glow of the blood moon. Crimson clouds were forming over their heads. The ice was spreading on the windows and ground, despite the scorching hot wind.

"This is why you were given magic, Alix," her dad told her. "This is why you were chosen, why you were indispensable. I was not being overprotective. You had to be safe. _You_ are the time traveller."

###

Adrien had raced to the window and twisted as he jumped through it, so his back would take the brunt of the damage. Still, he thought as shards of glass sliced through his skin, his future as a model was severely compromised. If he had a future at all. His odds of surviving falling from the first floor were limited.

Maybe he would just shatter half of his bones.

"Makko!" he called, just in case the Kwami was listening, through that one butterfly.

His blue glove vanished. Something grew on his back. Wings, he realized when they started beating at high speed, not fast enough to propel him upwards, but enough to slow his fall. At the same time, twirling red cloth wrapped itself around his arm and knee, with the same effect, as his father… as Shroud dove after him.

The wings exploded into pink sparkles a few inches away from the ground. Adrien hit a mattress of crumpled cloth. The impact that could have killed him ended up merely knocking the air out of his lungs. He recovered just in time to avoid getting covered by flowing fabric. He jumped to his feet and started running to the gates, dodging Gabriel as he appeared in front of him, and tearing the red scarf wrapped around his arm away.

Shroud followed him into the street, flying past stunned cops who nearly stopped Adrien before realizing there was a monster chasing after him. The teenager turned at the corner, running as fast as his legs could carry him.

The blue glove reappeared.

Of course, he could not catch a break, ever. Drapery, curtains and bedsheets flew out of every open window in the street, all of them flying straight towards him.

Adrien needed to get out of sight, and quick. There was no way to face his father head on, with or without superpowers. He needed to figure out what the fetish was. He needed to think of a strategy to get it, too. How was he supposed to fight an enemy who was not tangible? He could not land a blow, he could not contain him, and reasoning with him did not exactly look like an option.

Panting, the boy ran around the mansion, zigzagging between the trees along the way in the hope that some of the cloth chasing him would get caught in the branches. It worked to some extent, but not nearly as well as Adrien had hoped. He was still being chased, and he knew he would not be able to run forever. He needed to find a place to hide, and for that he needed to get out of Shroud's line of sight.

There was not an alley in sight. Adrien circled the mansion to get to a residential street. He pushed every building door until he found one that opened, slamming it closed. From there, he hurried up the stairs and tried to get into each apartment. A door was unlocked on the second floor. He slipped in and looked around, wary of the curtains and blankets he saw around him, but none moved. Breathing a sigh of relief, he crossed the apartment, opened the glass door to the balcony, and ran down the fire stairs to the gardens underneath.

The sky turned black and scarlet.

A red moon appeared above the Eiffel Tower. The grass under his feet started moving, and the closest bushes turned towards him, their branches covered in sharp black thorns.

Adrien jumped away from a patch of fanged violets, walking backwards until he was sure to be out of the vegetation's reach, then ran to the street. He had to flatten himself against a wall when a werewolf trampled past him, chasing some kind of four winged bat.

"What the…" he murmured.

Hawk Moth was attacking the city. He had sent Akumas out. Not just Shroud, not just the one who had caused the red moon to appear, but a variety of them, with totally different abilities. The wind was starting to get warmer, uncomfortably so. Adrien could see some hoarfrost on the fences and plants around him, however.

The teenager kept moving, avoiding a vampire and a ghost, trying to find a safe spot to shelter himself in. He had to come up with a plan. He had to get more information on what was going on, to know how many monsters had been unleashed.

"Adrien!" someone called from the other side of the street.

He knew that voice.

"Alix?" he exclaimed, turning to see her.

She was crossing the street to join him, followed by her father and brother. Jalil was not entirely there. Adrien could see through him.

"Alix, you _made it out_?" he exclaimed, running to her. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. We need to go back," she replied. "Your father turned into a supervillain _again_ and he attacked eve… Wait, you know?"

"I went home. I saw him. I saw what he did to the others too. Alix, he gave Chat Noir's Miraculous to Hawk Moth. That makes _three_ , we have to stop him!"

Mister Kubdel muttered something about turtles and sturdiness, and needing to remember something. He was not listening to their conversation.

"We need to go _BACK_ ," Alix repeated, grabbing Adrien's arm and starting to run. "To the Bourgeois' hotel. I don't have my skates!"

He stumbled after her.

"What?"

"I need to be higher up. It's the only way I can be fast enough to open a portal back."

"You want to…"

"LESS TALKING MORE RUNNING!"

They were only three streets away. Getting to the Grand Paris didn't take them long, though Jalil couldn't keep up with them and found himself a hiding spot along the way. Mister Kubdel, however, followed without complain, though he was wheezing.

They took the elevator up and got to the roof in a few minutes.

"That's it," Alix commented, white as a sheet. "We go back."

She was livid. Adrien joined her on the ledge of the roof.

"Makko, wings please," he murmured.

His glove dissolved. The wings came back.

"New powers?" his classmate commented.

"Apparently," Adrien said, looking above his shoulders to see what the wings looked like.

The most he could tell was that they were blue.

Alix closed her hand over his forearm and held on as best as she could. She breathed in, she breathed out, looking down. It was a long, long fall down to the pavement.

Greyish cloth dropped from the sky and spiraled around them. The black, foggy shape of Gabriel's body landed on the ledge a few feet away.

He was going to catch them.

"ARGUS!" mister Kubdel shouted.

The specter whirled to him.

"Dad?" Alix whispered, looking back.

Her father opened his arms, turned towards Gabriel, a smirk on his face. He clicked his tongue.

"Turtles are sturdy, but Clovers are _lucky_ ," he said, with a slight bow.

Shroud's pale eyes shone brighter. He attacked, jumping on mister Kubdel to throw him to the floor. All of the fabric he commanded followed him.

Adrien stared for an instant, thinking of Alix and Jalil. _Clover had two young children._

Alix watched the fight for ten seconds at most, eyes wide, then shook her friend's arm.

"LET'S GO!" she exclaimed. "Three, two, one…"

They both jumped.

###


	43. Chapter 43

If Alix tried to remember her childhood - her early childhood, in the house with the blue wallpaper and the brown sofa that appeared on none of her family pictures - she could still hear her father's voice. "Ah, but Clovers are _lucky_ ". How often had he said that?

She also remembered chasing Jalil around the house, armed with pink plastic sticks she had called 'nunchakus'. Her brother would clutch some Enid Blyton book to his chest as he ran away, screaming 'Moooooom' at the top of his lucks.

"You won't get away!" his sister had shouted. "I'm faster! KOWABUNGA!"

Her father had grabbed her from the back and lifted her up.

"What did I _say_ about watching that show, miss?"

He had said 'don't do it'.

"Iiiiiiiiiii uh."

"I told you it was violent and rude, and made for children _much_ older than you. You know that. I won't have my daughter watch that terrible cartoon. Is that clear?"

"It's not terrible! They are heroes. And super cool."

"Heroes," her father had repeated with a disgusted grimace. "Why aren't you more interested in the _real_ heroes? Why don't you want to be like-"

When Alix got to that point, the pictures in her mind flickered away. She thought she remembered pink wings and pink outfits. Her child self had wrinkled her nose.

Now that she had heard the stories about the previous heroes form Adrien, Alya and mister Agreste, she could fill in the blanks.

"Why don't you want to be like Aricia instead?" her dad had asked. "She is a _real_ hero. And a girl, too."

"Uuuuugh. She's a butterflyyyy."

"Fine. Fine. Argus?"

"Also a butterfly. Butterflies are _stupid_."

"Why not _Clover_ then?"

"He's stupid too. He doesn't have nunchakus."

"He has a shield."

"Booooooring. I like Michelangelo better. I like the _turtles_ better."

"Clover _is_ a turtle, miss Difficult."

"It's just a costume. And he does nothing turteley."

"That's because Clovers are inherently _better_ than turtles."

"No they aren't."

"Yes they are. Turtles are sturdy, but clovers are _lucky._ "

Their memories had been taken away, Alix thought as she dove from the roof of the Grand Paris. They had forgotten everything, just like Adrien had forgotten about his parents having been heroes. _Her_ father had been a hero. Not that she would ever get to discuss it with him. It looked like he had just remembered, and if she travelled back through time, he never would. If she did not, well, she would never discuss anything with anyone again.

She clutched Adrien's arm.

Her friend had grown blue insect wings, the same shape as Makko's. A butterfly.

 _Butterflies are stupid._

Alix could see Adrien was trying hard not to beat said wings, not to break their fall before she could open a portal. She focused on the past and prayed for that to be enough.

White sparks crackled around her, growing stronger and stronger. Then a bright flash blinded her, and she heard the frantic flutter of Adrien's wings. They hit the pavement at an angle instead of flattening themselves on it. It didn't make the impact painless: they were both thrown feet away.

Alix struggled to get to her knees, panting. She looked around and found a street filled with cops and flooded by normal daylight. Blood Moon was gone.

It had worked.

###

"Those cops are here for me," Adrien groaned as several policemen ran to them. "Please distract them."

The skater turned to him and gaped. The costumes were magical, they had to be, because he was wearing his own clothes and had the same haircut but she still had a split second of "who the heck are you?" when she saw the cobalt blue mask around his eyes. His wings had vanished.

"Mask," she whispered.

He patted his face, and the blue leathery fabric vanished in a burst of pink sparkles. It covered his hand instead.

"What-" he muttered, still stunned by their fall.

"Everything alright here?" a cop cut in, stopping right next to them

Alix jumped to her feet.

"AOUCH," she exclaimed. "Aow. Did you _see_ what happened?" - She did not give the man a chance to answer. - "I was on the phone with mister Agreste's assistant and my phone just…" - She threw in a chain of expletives. - "EXPLODED. Where _is_ the stupid thing?" she finished, looking around. "You saw the blast, right? I had to drop it and jump, where did it go?"

The cop raised a hand, all the while studying Adrien's face. His eyes widened in recognition.

"Children, if you will just-"

Alix nearly grabbed Adrien's wrist as he stood up, but settled for placing her hand right above his shoulder, trying her hardest not to touch him. Absorbing one person in a day was enough.

"Come on!" she snapped. "Your father is waiting, and I don't want him to yell my head off!"

Her friend grunted and swayed. He had taken the brunt of the blow when they had hit the ground.

The policeman blocked their way, clearly concerned by how bruised and bloody Adrien was.

"Miss, young man, we really need to-"

"OY!" Alix shouted (when everything failed, you had to be louder than the other party). "Do you mind? Mister Agreste has been looking for his son EVERYWHERE!" - That sounded like a safe bet, since Adrien had just told her the cops were there for him. - "He's WAITING. Do YOU want to be the guy who kept Adrien out for a little TALK when he could be home? I swear, you PEOPLE!" she finished, giving the slightest thump on Adrien's back so he would move towards the gates of the mansion.

He took the hint and started walking.

"Yeah well let me accompany you," the cop said.

"Whatever," Alix snapped back, huffing and stomping to the gates.

They were closed, and she hoped Adrien had a way to open them without ringing the doorbell, because announcing their arrival to the resident supervillain was not a smart choice.

Adrien took a deep breath.

"Thanks for your concern, sir," he told the policeman with his most polite smile. "I… I would be grateful if you could let me talk to my father alone. I-I don't know if you know, but I ran away and… It will definitely be easier if he knows I went home of my own free will. Please."

The cop frowned, crossing his arms, but ended up sighing and giving Adrien a slight nod.

"Alright. I'm still going to stand here and make sure that you don't try to scamper, are we clear? Your father was very worried for you."

Adrien looked at his feet, lips pursed.

"I know he was," he whispered, meeting the cop's eyes again. "He always was. Thank you again."

He breathed in, then pushed the gates with a gloved hand. There was a click, and the heavy, fortified, super-secure gates opened without protest, much to Adrien's surprise. He looked stunned.

Alix followed him into the courtyard and shoved the gates closed.

"Okay, let's go!" she exclaimed.

They both started walking to the doors, circling the crater in the middle of the courtyard. As soon as they were out of earsight, Adrien stopped, his back turned to the gates where the cop was still waiting.

"What did my father do with the ring?" he whispered.

"He gave it to Copycat. Said he was the most qualified Chat Noir available."

She watched Adrien wince and think about her answer.

"There are two of you and two of me. Now, I don't know _when_ we are, but 'present' me will be arriving from this side," he announced, pointing at the wall on their right. "I have no idea when. You need to get to Theo, keep him transformed, and try to find the other Adrien to give him the ring _before_ Hawk Moth arrives. I'll distract Shroud."

" _What?_ " Alix yelled. "There's nothing you can do against him! He's like a specter or something."

"I can _run_ ," Adrien answered. "I have a bit of Makko's magic, wings, the glove… I can lure him away. I did it earlier, I'll use the same trick to escape. Now… Where was he when he was evilized? Do you know? _When_ was it? Maybe we're early enough."

"I have no idea. He came to the dining room to talk with Marinette's parents but all he did was say he'd take our powers away if they wanted him to, then he went to his office. But that was at least an hour ago, or maybe later, I don't know!"

Her classmate opened and closed his mouth, then swallowed.

"No, no, the cops were looking for me. He's transformed. _Get the ring_."

"Don't be stupid! You don't stand a chance, you have to stay with the rest of us while-"

"He was _turned_ because he wanted to protect us. Me, all of you, that was the deal he made. If he caught us, Hawk Moth spared us. He won't hurt me. But he can't know there is two of me. Now let's go!" Adrien snapped, climbing the stairs to the house's doors and slipping in as quietly as he could.

Alix swore under her breath and raced after him.

###

"How many rooms does this place have, anyway?" Nino mumbled under his breath as Alya dragged him from room to room to look for mister Agreste.

He could have sworn they had looked into fifty of them. It was hard to say: they all looked the same, with the designer furniture and black and white wallpaper. It was all as cold and stark as the master of the house. Even the wooden furniture looked like it was made of metal. Nino hoped they would find Adrien's dad _soon_ , because he felt like the rooms were multiplying and the walls were watching him. It was like being lost in a never-ending Ikea maze, if Ikea catered to the filthy rich.

At long last, they found the man, in what had to be parlor #17. He was sitting on a sofa, leaning back a little but with his shoulders hunched, proving that his spine was _not_ \- all evidence to the contrary - a rod of metal.

Alya took a few tentative steps towards him and stepped two good feet away.

"Mister Agreste?" she called.

Gabriel did not answer. He was holding his hand in front of his face, and balancing something golden from left to right. Nino recognized his wife's necklace and pendant, that the man had given to Alya when they were still planning to 'talk' to 'Picture Perfect'.

Mister Agreste sighed, shaking his head, and spun his hand to wrap the necklace around his palm.

Nino's stomach turned to ice.

"Are you okay?" Alya asked, crossing the space that separated her from Adrien's father as Nino opened his mouth to shout. No sound would come out. He jumped forward.

His friend put a hand on mister Agreste's shoulder, which creased and sank under the pressure. The texture of Gabriel's skin changed, his hair turned to fabric, and all of it collapsed.

"AKUMA!" Nino screamed, grabbing Alya's wrist and dragging her to the door.

He felt her stumble, but she didn't fall. _Thankfully._ He glanced back and discovered that flying fabric was chasing them. He also saw the dark, transparent silhouette of a man stand from the sofa, before Alya slammed the door closed.

Alya had been right to worry.

They had been stupid, _stupid_. If the had gone after the man earlier - even ten minutes earlier - this would not have happened. He had been just fine when Alya and Nino had overheard his phone call in the courtyard. If they had found him sooner…

"This way!" Alya snapped, dragging him after her.

Nino ran faster, holding on to her for dear life. They had to get to the dining room and warn the others. He glanced at her.

"We have to-"

A door opened on their left and curtains flew past them, twirling around Nino. He fought to free himself as his friend pulled on the fabric to pry it loose, but it was useless. It just swirled and twisted and wrapped itself tighter and tighter.

Then he heard the last voice he would have expected to hear. Adrien's.

 _"Father,"_ the blond shouted from the end of the corridor.

The enchanted fabric went limp. It stopped resisting Alya's attempts to tear it off, and both the blogger and Nino stumbled when she gave one last tug with her full weight. Adrien ran past them, holding a stick in his hand - a broomstick, minus the broom part - and swatted at two curtains that were trying to wrap themselves around him. The stick was nearly torn out of his his hands, so he let go of it, rolling to the floor and pulling it out of the fabric in a smooth sliding motion.

He stopped right under his father's feet.

"MOVE!" Nino shouted, as Adrien looked up and blanched.

Mister Agreste, or rather the creepy black ghost wrapped in torn fabric that he had become, stared at his son with shining blue eyes.

The layers of cloth that Nino was trapped in tore themselves away, sending him flying. They dove straight for Adrien, who pushed the wall with both feet to get himself out of the way. He rolled and stabbed through Gabriel's hand with the tip of his stick, trying to snatch the necklace away. He missed. His father caught the staff with a band of striped silk that had to be his tie.

Nino got to his knees and fumbled for his bubble wand. Alya started firing pause icons at mister Agreste. The fabric he manipulated froze, but the man himself was unaffected. He stepped through the layers of cloth, his attention now turned to Alya.

"RUN!" Adrien screamed, attempting to trip the specter.

Nino opened his bubble wand and blew one gigantic bubble around himself and Alya. His classmate squeaked, tripping, and her friend caught her as she fell. He stumbled to his feet, pulling her up with him.

Adrien freed the broomstick and hit his father's back.

"RUN!" he repeated, when he wood passed through the black smoke that formed Gabriel's body.. "GO. I'LL HANDLE HIM."

"We're not leaving you be-"

Adrien sidestepped away from a strip of grey cotton that tried to tie his leg down, and danced away from a curtain as it swooped in.

"GO," he screamed. "HAWK MOTH IS COMING!" - He had to roll again. - "GET COPYCAT OUT!"

Nino jumped out of his bubble, shoving it towards the end of the corridor, and blew a wall of tinier ones behind him. His best friend was moving farther and farther away, avoiding his father's attempts to catch him.

"Alya, _run_ ," Nino said, creating a last, larger bubble for himself.

He couldn't abandon his best pal, could he?

His classmate jumped, trying to figure out how to operate the bubble. Nino gave a little mental shove. Strange how he could, now, but Makko had 'reallocated' the butterflies, hadn't she? The push sent Alya's bubble forward, and that was enough to send her on her way. She understood how to move and direct herself well enough from there.

He turned back to Adrien, who was still dodging billowing cloth, alternately shoving it away and jumping back. Mister Agreste was following him in slow, measured steps. Both his fists were clenched, and looked like masses of opaque black smoke, when you could see through the rest of him.

Nino charged.

###


	44. Chapter 44

Navigating Adrien's house in a soap bubble was like being thrown into a pinball machine where the ball could move up and down too. Alya managed to get to the hall after a million spins, bounces, and flips. She breathed a sigh of relief when the bubble finally popped. Then, she ran into the dining room.

She found a mess of upturned furniture and broken dishes, with cutlery spread everywhere, shards of glass all over the floor, and bundles of fabric wrapped around the table's legs. Three larger cocoons were lying under the window. There was no flying fabric, however, no twirling swirls of cloth, nothing blatantly magical around, save for Sunny Weather, who was sitting on the dinner table and panting.

Everyone else was frantic.

Jalil Kubdel and Alya's parents were trying to tear the smaller cocoon apart to free her sisters, with the help of Nino's dad. Mister Kubdel was standing near the wall, scratching his wrist and staring at the scene in confusion. Alix was on her knees next to one of the cocoons, cutting through it with a butter knife (or rather trying her hardest). And Alix… _another_ Alix was swearing and pulling on the tightly wrapped cloth. _Time travel._

"ALYA!" that second Alix yelled. "GET EVERYONE OUT! Hawk Moth is coming!"

The blogger transformed. She grabbed mister Kubdel's wrist, since he was the closest to her, and tried to shove him through the door. He took a step back instead, turning to Alix. He opened and closed his mouth, shook his head and freed his wrist.

"GO!" Alya insisted. "Run, get to safety, we'll protect the others! Sunny, can you protect them on the way out?"

"On it," Aurore replied, floating up and diving into the hall.

She landed and pointed her umbrella at the main doors, waiting for people to follow them. Everyone had ignored Alya and Alix's instructions, however. Miss Wifi stormed to her parents and tried to pull them away from her sister's cocoons. Her father pushed her hand away.

"Help us!" he begged, trying to tear the cloth apart.

"I'll get them out!" Alya promised. "Just get to safety, we'll be joining you."

She pretended not to hear Nino's father when he asked where his son was.

"Where would we even GO?" Jalil exclaimed. "Isn't Hawk Moth going to look for us? For Alix? For all of you?"

"The Louvre," his father mumbled.

Several pairs of eye turned to him, but he did not elaborate. He was still lost in thought.

"Why the Louvre?" Miss Sancoeur snapped, whirling to mister Kubdel.

"The vaults are Akuma-proof," he replied. "I was hired because my family was known to work with and create magical contraptions. I had some experience in the field of magical mechanisms, so I was asked to work on the wards, on top of screening the archeological finds we get."

"WHAT?" both of his children - or all three of them, clones included - yelled.

"It's a long story," mister Kubdel replied. "We should-"

" _Get out,_ " one of the Alix cut in. "Now is not the time to-"

"It's too late!" Sunny Weather shouted from the hall. She was pressed against a window. "Hawk Moth is right outside."

Alya ran to the dining room window and gasped, jumping away.

Ladybug - the evilized Ladybug, with the violet and black costume, the hood, the pink wings - was perched on the courtyard wall.

Miss Wifi swore, racing to the other side of the room to open the window on the street's side. She froze as soon as she looked outside: a swarm of Akumas was waiting in the street, fluttering right under the window.

"We can't get out," she said, voice devoid of emotion.

" _Crap_ ," Alix murmured. " _Crap, crap, crap, crap_."

Miss Wifi turned to her. She gaped when she saw that her friend's eyes were filling with tears.

"There is a panic room in the basement," Nathalie announced. "I'll show you the way."

"YOUR BOSS IS AN AKUMA, YOU IDIOT, HE WILL OPEN IT FOR HAWK MOTH," Alix shouted. She groaned as people turned to her and wiped her tears with her sleeve. "Adrien is keeping him busy but I don't know how long that'll work. Miss Wifi, Sunny, distract Hawk Moth. I'm getting everyone out."

"How will you even-" Miss Sancoeur started.

Alix pressed her hand on the cocoon she had been cutting through, right on a patch of exposed black leather. A second went by, then the cocoon collapsed on empty air.

" _Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap_ ," that Alix whined, as her duplicate stared at the scene with wide eyes. " _CRAP._ "

She took a deep breath, patted the fabric of the cocoon for something, then shook it, but nothing fell out.

"You do it _too_!" she snapped at the other Alix. "ALYA, MOVE!"

Miss Wifi snapped herself out her shock and ran to the hall, slamming the dining room behind her.

Hawk Moth walked in.

###

Soap bubbles made for great steamrollers, as Nino found out ten seconds after charging. He had not been expecting results, but a small jump right before bumping into Gabriel Agreste had allowed him to bounce up and down, to land on the ghost with his full weight _and_ some help from gravity.

Immaterial Akuma-specters couldn't pass through magical soap, apparently, Nino mused as he watched mister Agreste stumble and fall against the wall.

The teenager did not waste time gawking: he grabbed Adrien and pulled him into his bubble, pushing it forward as he did so.

"What are you doing here?" he exclaimed, willing his bubble to travel down the corridor.

" _Left,_ " Adrien shouted, throwing himself to the side to change trajectory.

On their left was a closed door, so the turn was not as smooth as it could have been. Their bubble rebounded, pinballing from one side of the corridor to another. It ended up rolling in a zigzag, with the two boys folded up in a mess of arms and legs at its bottom.

"Okay, dude, what about you give me directions and I do the moving?" Nino mumbled, trying to get back to his feet.

Curtains dropped on them and wrapped themselves around the bubble.

Adrien groaned and stood, swaying on his feet. He ran his hands against the bubble's surface. The cloth was closing up around it, but did not break through.

"Spin," the two boys murmured in the same voice.

They started trotting at a clumsy, hesitant pace, and went faster and faster as they adjusted their rhythms to each other's. The fabric was pushed off the spinning bubble, falling to the floor. It flew up instantly and dove on them again.

Mister Agreste tried to punch through the soap bubble.

"AAAAAAH!" Adrien and Nino shrieked, jumping back.

They rolled - again - and only managed to get back to their feet after they hit a corner and stopped there.

"We need to focus," the blond mumbled. "You float, I tell you where to go."

"Okay. Where?"

Adrien looked around to figure out where they had landed.

"Third door to the right," he murmured.

Nino propelled them forward. Mister Agreste moved back, blocking the third door, but Adrien took his best friend's wrist and tugged just before they passed the second door. Nino caught the hint and turned, pushing his hand through his bubble to push the door handle.

They rolled into Adrien's bedroom, closely followed by billowing cloth. With the bubble still moving, however, the layers of fabric couldn't wrap themselves around them. They slipped over the surface and at best managed to make the bubble spin on itself.

Mister Agreste followed them into the room as they ran to the window.

Adrien tried to walk out of the bubble and failed.

"Nino," he murmured. "Let me out."

His friend had turned to Gabriel and frozen in fear. The specter's shining blue eyes were digging holes through his soul. The teenager snapped out of it and freed Adrien, who reached through their bubble and grabbed the window frame with a gloved hand.

He pulled.

The metal shrieked and bent. The glass - the undoubtedly bulletproof reinforced glass - cracked and broke into pieces. Adrien threw himself back, sending the bubble spinning, and the windows collapsed altogether, leaving a gaping hole in their place.

Mister Agreste slid across the room and tried to block the way again.

"Adrien, I absolutely _forbid you_ to try and run," he ground out.

Nino peeked at his best friend. The blond took a deep, angry breath and scowled.

"On three, Nino. One, two…"

"THREE," the boys yelled, jumping as high as they could in the window's direction.

The bubble fell back down and bounced. Nino willed it higher, then brought it down on Gabriel with as much force as he could manage. The ghost fell out, floating down to the street while Adrien and his classmate dropped down in the bubble. They hit the pavement, bounced up and spiraled into the air. Nino stopped it fifty feet from the ground.

"Ouch. Think he'll be okay?" he squeaked.

"Trust me, it takes more than that to hurt a supervillain, and he's immaterial anyway," Adrien replied. "We need to land and get _just_ out of his sight. We need to lure him away."

Curtains and bedsheets were already flying out of Adrien's bedroom and going straight for them.

"Here we go!" Nino exclaimed, letting their bubble drop.

He guided it away from the mansion without landing, so he would not lose speed. Mister Agreste gave chase. Adrien pressed his back to Nino's.

"Left," he snapped as a strip of red cloth dove towards them. "Right. Right. Up!"

His best friend followed his instructions blindly, focusing on not hitting obstacles and on not popping the bubble. It felt weaker and weaker, to the point that the boy poured some of his soapy water down. Fabric kept flying past and around them.

They turned at the corner of the street.

Adrien jumped out of the bubble.

"Go up and over him and go help Alya and the others," he ordered. "They will need you against Hawk Moth. You need to keep Copycat safe until I join you."

"What? Are you cra-"

"Shroud _can't_ join that fight." - _Shroud._ Of all names. - "He is immaterial and he paralyzes people. I'll lure him away and come back. In the meantime, the others will need _you._ You can't let Hawk Moth get my ring. _GO_!" Adrien shouted as Gabriel caught up with them.

He started running. After a moment of hesitation, Nino jumped to the roofs. 'Shroud' ignored him, going after his son without the slightest concern for his classmate or for the passerby. Adrien zigzagged from one side of the street to the other, trying to pass under every tree on his way.

Nino balled his fists.

 _He won't hurt Adrien,_ he told himself. _It's his kid. He sent him out of town. He won't hurt him._

It was hard to convince himself. That being said… His best pal wanted him to go help the others. _Chat Noir_ wanted him to go help the others. What choice did Nino have?

He flew up and went back to the mansion.

###

Alix took a deep breath, looking back at the empty dining room.

Everyone had been absorbed. _Everyone_. Now, all that was left to do was to make sure they could be released in a safe place. She pressed herself to the window, looking down at the street.

The ground was nearly one floor down. The street was filled with Akuma.

She could hear Sunny Weather and Miss Wifi fight Evilbug. Aurore was in the courtyard and Alya in the hallway, as far as she could judge. The side of the mansion was the only way to avoid Hawk Moth.

"I'm going," she announced, opening the window.

She took one last look outside, lowered herself out, and let go of the window frame.

###


	45. Chapter 45

If there was one good thing to be said of Hawk Moth, it was that he (it? What did you call an evil spirit that possessed people, exactly?) learned from his mistakes ('it's mistakes' did not sound right), or maybe from other people's mistakes. From Plot Hole, apparently, he had learned that palavering was a terrible tactical error during battles.

As soon as the possessed Marinette had opened the door, she had tried to stab Miss Wifi through the chest with her cane. If Alya had not been ready for that, she would have spent the rest of the fight pinned to a wall. As things were, she had dodged by a hairsbreadth.

Dodging was all she had done for five solid minutes.

Hawk Moth could not be frozen. He-it-she (and really, a spirit who possessed a deity who possessed a teenage girl? Was he making it difficult on purpose?) was fast, agile, and equipped with functional wings. And he had a yoyo that could slice through anything.

Aurore had lured the villain outside, as she could fly and avoid his attacks. Miss Wifi had stayed inside the house, out of the yoyo's reach, but it limited her options. Not that she had any to begin with: her attacks had no effect whatsoever. She had tried pausing the yoyo and cane, to no avail.

At least, they had kept their enemy too busy to get to the dining room and take the Miraculous, if it was still there. With some luck, the others had escaped through the window on the side of the mansion. It was hard to say.

 _Think, Alya, think._

Lady Wifi had been able to inflict some damage with her icons, but Alya had not retained that power. All she could do was freeze things, and Hawk Moth was immune to that.

But she could freeze things.

She ran to the potted plants on the side of the door and tore them out of their pots, cutting the stems into pieces. Peeking outside, she waited for Marinette to have her back to her, then raced out.

"STORMY!" she shouted, looking up at Aurore, who was hovering above the courtyard.

Her teammate glanced at her. Alya threw the plants in the air as Hawl Moth turned to her.

"Give me a-" she started.

"Storm!" the blonde finished, pointing her umbrella down.

The wind started howling as a tornado grew around Hawk Moth, catching the leaves and plant stems as they fell.

Marinette attacked, throwing her yoyo forward. The cyclone did not hamper her at all: instead of trying to fight against the wind, she spun in the same direction, the silver string of her weapon cutting through the air even faster than it usually did, shredding the leaves in its path.

Alya jumped and tried not to die. Mid-air, she swiped a hail of icons towards the tornado. They hit plant fragments and froze them in the middle of the storm. Hawk Moth's spinning yoyo hit a broken stem. Instead of cutting straight through it, the string bent. The yoyo spun and wrapped itself around the stem, nearly taking Miss Wifi's and Marinette's heads off in the process.

The villain tried to pull on the string to free the weapon, not quite realizing what was happening.

You could not destroy items frozen in time.

Miss Wifi jumped again, perching on the highest paused leaves and swiping her phone over and over again to lock more plant fragments into place. If she couldn't paralyze Hawk Moth, paralyzing the rest of the world would have to do. She just hoped Aurore would manage to keep the storm going.

Their opponent loosened the yoyo's string and pulled it back. He attached it to his-her-their (if a summary of that fight was to be published on the Ladyblog, editorial decisions about pronouns would have to be taken) hip.

 _When someone is three people at once, which one do you use as a subject, anyway?_ the blogger wondered. _We never covered that in French class. It's not even in my grammar books!_

Hawk Moth jumped, turning the cane into a spear and attempting to gut Miss Wifi on the way up.

 _Maybe the one who is trying to kill you._

Alya saltoed away. She stumbled as she landed on the paved ground of the courtyard, the winds around her too strong for her to keep her balance. Hawk Moth flew higher and higher, iridescent wings fluttering and bending under the force of the tornado. Sunny Weather tried to force the villain down with bursts of wind - the cage Miss Wifi had created out of torn leaves was only useful if its prisoner could be kept in it - but her efforts were in vain. Their opponent's hand closed around her ankle and pulled her down.

###

Alix pressed herself against the dining room wall and peeked outside through the window, to watch her other self race away. She had heard herself yell upon landing - it was a pretty long fall down to the street - but apparently past-Alix had not broken anything. That was cool.

Also, the plan was working. The swarm of Akuma had spotted #1. It was chasing after her, following her up the street and past the Bourgeois Hotel. Of course, some of the creepy flying horrors had stayed right next to the mansion, but Alix #2 liked her chances to escape better when she had a few dozen insects to face, rather than a few hundreds. And she _had_ to get away, because _she_ had absorbed everyone.

With sucky powers came sucky responsibilities.

She waited for #1 to be out of sight, crossed her fingers for her other self (if she got to the Seine and swam away, the Akuma were out of luck), then grabbed the ivy outside the window and tried to climb down the wall. She managed to get a few inches lower before misstepping and crashing down. She landed on her ass, but had seen _much_ worse as far as falls went. In five seconds or so, she was up and running.

It was the crappiest thing ever to have to run as fast as you could to escape flying evil spirits, without going _too_ fast, because accidentally jumping through time by using the vital energy of, what, ten people including her _entire family_ would have sucked.

Adrien - her Adrien, so that would have been Adrien #2 or future Adrien or maybe Mirai Adrien for huge dorks - had told her not to go to the school, not under any circumstances. Hawk Moth was having the battle of the century in the courtyard of the mansion, and anyway #1 had gone that way with her cloud of black butterflies. It was a no go.

Alix #2 raced straight towards 'somewhere else'. Somewhere else was great. The Louvre was too far away. What she needed to do was a) get rid of the Akuma tailing her, and b) find a quiet place to try to shove everyone out of the quantic back pocket she had stored them in.

That was the plan.

At the first corner she turned, Adrien jumped out of nowhere and grabbed her elbow.

She nearly punched him in the face.

"THE HECK? You got rid of Shroud already?" she exclaimed, remembering just in time that her punches were bad news and throwing her hands up.

"Wh… Shroud?"

"Ohyou'renumberone!" she gasped, grabbing him by the collar. "Run. I'll explain!"

###

 _The school, the school, the school, get to the school,_ Adrien told himself as he jumped over an upturned bike. _The school_.

He felt about to collapse. His back stung. His lungs were on fire. He was so out of breath that he was tasting blood in the back of his throat. But his father was chasing him, and getting Shroud away from Hawk Moth was the only thing Adrien could do to protect his friends.

If Alix had been lucky, she had managed to get Copycat out, by that point. She had managed to get Plagg out.

The sky was still blue. Blood Moon had not appeared, nor had Spectrum. The trees and potted plants looked distinctly inanimate, as far as the boy could tell. They were not eating people. The young hero had not spotted strange creatures on the roofs, nor androids, nor werewolves. The weather was just fine. There was a fair chance Hawk Moth had not won yet.

 _Fingers crossed._

He had never realized how _far_ from the school he lived. 'A few streets away' was a long sprint, and magical blue gloves were not going to help.

Every step he took sent a wave of pain from his heels to his knees. Every breath he took burned. He still had to dodge billowing strips of fabric, bedsheets, curtains, tablecloths, everything his father's powers could reach. It was getting harder and harder.

When he finally reached the school - _let it be empty_ \- he tripped on the stairs, stumbled in and slammed the doors, to slow Shroud down. Without pausing to catch his breath, he limped across the schoolyard and walked into the chemistry classroom. He closed the doors and took a few steps back, panting.

He waited.

 _Come on, Father._

Barely a minute later, Gabriel landed into the schoolyard, his dark silhouette wrapped in torn grey fabric. He looked around, his shining eyes scanning his surroundings and finding Adrien easily enough, through the glass panes of the classroom's door. The specter slid to the door and slammed it open, his enchanted fabric slipping into the room as he walked in. The cloth immediately dove for Adrien.

The teenager raised his hands.

"I'm safe," he said, with the utmost calm.

The fabric paused, hovering mid-air. Gabriel stopped, staring at his son with chilling, glowing blue eyes.

"I'm safe," the boy repeated. "I did what you wanted. I'm safe, I left, I'm nowhere near Hawk Moth."

" _You came back!_ " his father snapped. "Don't you _understand_ what could happen to you? Do you have any idea of what that ring could _cost_ you?"

Adrien breathed in, closing his eyes not to tear up. He took a second to collect himself, then met Gabriel's eyes. They were nothing but glowing ice in the middle of absolute darkness, and it hurt more than he could express.

"I do," he replied, taking a step forward. "I do."

He crossed the rest of the space between his father and him and wrapped his arms around - that was the term: 'around' - the shape of him. Gabriel immediately extended his arm to the side, keeping his wife's pendant out of Adrien's reach.

His _other_ arm, he wrapped around his son.

###


	46. Chapter 46

"He's not coming back," Adrien told Alix, after his friend finished explaining the situation, present and future, including 'Hawkmari', 'Shroud', and the whole quantic backpack issue with everyone she had absorbed. And what 'Mirai Adrien' had done.

"What do you _mean_ he's not coming back?" the skater exclaimed.

The boy closed his eyes and sighed.

He knew himself.

"He is not coming back. He never meant to come back after luring 'Shroud' away," he explained. "Shroud's was Evilized because he wanted to _protect_ me. So… other me will give him exactly that. I bet he let himself be captured as soon as he got my father away from other people"

"IS HE STUP… I mean. Agh. _Whatever_. What do we do now?"

Adrien looked around. They had found a quiet spot in an underground parking lot, after getting rid of the Akuma. They were not in immediate danger, which was great, but the others needed help.

"You have to free Copycat," he told her. "We need Plagg. We need Chat Noir."

Alix shot daggers at him, making it clear that she had arrived at that conclusion without his help, thank you very much. He sighed.

"Is my scarf still at the mansion?"

If it could help snap Marinette out of her possession, they had to get the thing. They could not afford to discard what few tools they had.

"I have no idea," Alix replied. "The last time I saw it, it was in Theo's hand, but maybe it's still in the dining room."

"Then you'll have to ask him when you, uh, rematerialize him," Adrien said, turning away. "I'll go back."

Instead of telling him not to go (the reaction he would have expected from anyone else), Alix nearly followed. She groaned and took a step back when she realized she could not come with him.

"Okay. So what are you gonna do?"

"For a start, give a friend a call," the blond announced, before running to the staircase.

###

Nino landed on the mansion's roof just as Aurore crashed to the ground. The storm stopped at once, leaving Hawk Moth fly up, out of the circle of levitating leaves that formed a cage in the middle of the courtyard. The villain lifted their cane-turned-spear with both hands, pointing it at the crawling Sunny Weather, who was struggling to get back to her feet.

Miss Wifi, from the ground, started firing icons at Hawk Moth. It was not enough to stop her opponent - it had to be like with Picture Perfect: she could not freeze someone with similar powers - but it distracted the monster from murdering Aurore. That was something.

'Something' was not going to be enough.

 _Time to go full 'aqua shield', Sonic._

Nino jumped on his bubble, bouncing on the edge of the roof. It propelled him up - _aim right, aim right_ \- and he shoved the bubble down with a mental push, throwing himself at Hawk Moth. As it turned out, possessed people were not like Badniks: you could not just drop on their head to release the innocent little creature trapped inside the villainous body. Being hit at full speed by a gigantic magic ball sent Hawk Moth crashing to the ground, however. Nino's bubble was propelled in the opposite direction and spun in the air until the teenager managed to stabilize it. He looked around, trying to figure out which way was up and which way was down.

He heard Alya yell Aurore's name.

Nino whirled that way just in time to see Sunny point her umbrella at the ground. A burst of wind sent a dark stick flying across the courtyard. It clattered against a wall and landed in a corner.

 _Hawk Moth's cane_ , Nino realized.

Their opponent was trying to get up after that fall. Nino didn't wait a second. He dropped to the cane, picked it up, and kept it into his bubble. He tried to fly up, but the soap film around him wobbled and trembled It had grown thin and looked about to pop.

He needed water and he needed it soon. Or he needed to _transform_ and to get infinite soap. Not that he knew how to do that.

Miss Wifi was panting. Sunny weather was starting to revert back to Aurore, her gloves vanishing in a burst of pink light.

They needed a miracle.

Ladymoth reached for the yoyo.

 _Oh crap._

###

Alya lost all of her powers at once.

Butterflies erupted out of her skin, splitting into two groups that dove for Nino and Aurore, while the blogger herself was left untransformed and vulnerable on the ground. Sound tactical choice, as her friends had interesting offensive powers and hers were useless against Hawk Moth, but it left her in a bit of a pickle.

Marinette had lost the cane but had kept the yoyo and looked about to make good use of it. Alya was very, very sliceable and she remembered the disaster the metalling string of the yoyo had made of the Grand Paris' hallway. She had to hide. The frozen leaves cage was gone, the plant fragments having dropped to the floor as soon as Miss Wifi had been depowered. It left Alya with only one choice of cover: the house.

She started running just as Hawk Moth threw the yoyo forward and spun towards her.

A bubble hit the yoyo mid-air and exploded into a burst of flame.

Alya climbed up the half-destroyed stairs of the mansion and hid behind the railing, _then_ checked what was going on.

Nino had transformed. He was the Bubbler again, with the same (silly) costume, the king-size bubble wand, and obviously the same powers. He threw a hail of red bubbles at Hawk Moth, who had to fly up and zig-zag to avoid the explosions. Nino switched to green bubbles, jumping on the outer wall to get higher and closer to their opponent. He sent a cloud of small bubbles at the villain and made them spin, trying to form a prison around Marinette just like he had done with Ladybug and Chat Noir, when they had interrupted the 'birthday party'.

Alya paused on that. Adrien had been forced to stop the first birthday party of his life. That couldn't stand. He would be getting another, with or without his father's approval.

If they survived this.

Things didn't look so good. Sure, Nino could now fight, but Hawk Moth spun the yoyo around, cutting through the bubbles or deflecting them with ease. Their enemy knew better than to send the yoyo straight at a bubble and made sure to only smack their sides or to slice them with the string. There would be no 'merging the tiny bubbles into a large prison'. And Alya knew Nino: even if he could make exploding bubbles, he would not use them against Marinette. They could not risk harming her.

Stormy Weather's ice walls were an option but Aurore was not used them, so it was safe to say she had not gotten that power back yet. Instead, she was hovering above the courtyard, aiming at Hawk Moth without attacking.

They needed more magic.

They needed to even the odds.

"NINO!" she shouted, inching towards the mansion's doors.

She held her hands up when he turned to her. He was still holding Hawk Moth's cane. That being said, he could not afford to stop firing at the villain, let alone to throw the cane at Alya. Thankfully, Sunny took over, sending lightning bolts at Hawk Moth, who had to whirl from side to side to dodge them. It didn't look like Aurore was trying very hard to hit her target, but she still kept the monster busy while Nino handed the cane to Alya.

The blogger ran inside, turning right and crossing the dining room to drop out of the window to get to the street. She crashed to the ground, picked the cane up and got to her feet. She couldn't afford to nurse her sore ankles and bruised backside. She had to put as much distance as she could between Marinette and the weapon.

Black butterflies flew up from every surface to attack her.

###

Adrien had stolen a phone. More precisely, he had found a handbag on a sidewalk, undoubtedly abandoned by someone the swarm of Akuma had scared off, then collected a smartphone from said bag. He still felt guilty.

He wished he could be as detached about the issue of stolen phones as Alya, who had probably destroyed a good fifty of them in the last few days. But no: he had been raised not to steal and his conscience protested whenever he did. Which was not that often.

Still, he had made good use of that phone.

"Your father didn't ask me to drive you out of the country for nothing," the Gorilla said, grumbling as he drove around the Akuma-infected streets.

Butterflies were crashing against the car, smashing against the windows, trying to slip inside through the sides of the doors and the ventilation system. They had not managed yet, but it was only a question of time. As soon as the car would slow down, they would get in.

Adrien finished his third energy drink - 'the butterflies are feeding from you', his father had said - and turned to the driver. The man was voicing disapproval, but was still driving Adrien to the mansion. He had brought three dozen packs of energy drinks, just like his charge had requested. Clearly, he realized that dragging Chat Noir away from the fight was not going to help.

"What are you even gonna do?" the bodyguard asked. "You don't have that what-is-it ring thingie with the cat."

"I'm going to attempt a dashing rescue," the boy replied, smirking.

"Don't ya mean 'daring'?"

"No, no, I mean dashing. A _memorable_ rescue, something to _remember me by_. See, I'm Ladybug's _pendant._ "

The Gorilla scowled, confused. He did not know about the necklace Adrien's father had used to resist Hawk Moth's influence. He did not know about the childhood drawing and old photographs. He had not heard what Gabriel had said about using mementos of the past, beacons that could drag someone out of the darkness Hawk Moth trapped them in.

Of course, Gabriel had insisted objects worked better than people, but Adrien did not have Marinette's scarf. He could only hope his presence would be enough to reach her, to help her fight the possession.

His father's words echoed through his mind. 'It took me a few years'. But Marinette was Ladybug, wasn't she? She was supposed to be incorruptible. More than anyone else. More than Gabriel himself, even if he had a will of steel.

On top of that, she had luck on her side, didn't she?

He looked at the road. They were two street away from the Place du Chatelet. There were Akuma everywhere, in increasing numbers. The area was deserted. The windows and doors of the buildings around them were closed, the curtains drawn. At least, people were trying to stay safe.

Except the one girl.

"STOP!" he yelled when he saw a flailing silhouette spin and fall to the ground, totally covered in butterflies.

The Gorilla hit the brakes.

Adrien jumped out of the car as soon as it stopped, hurrying to the girl who was thrashing on the sidewalk. He tried to drive the Akuma away, brushing them off her as best as he could. Those he distracted attacked him instead, but he paid them no mind.

"Cane!" the girl exclaimed, slamming a staff on the pavement.

" _Alya?_ "

The Gorilla joined them, holding his jacket in his hand. He hit the teenager with it, over and over again, in light strikes that scared the butterflies off. Meanwhile, Adrien picked the stick up. The cane. Hawk Moth's cane.

"I stole it," Alya announced, getting back to her feet and slapping the rest of the Akuma away. She was shivering with disgust. "The Bubbler and Sunny Weather are fighting him. They need help."

"We have energy drinks in the car," Adrien replied, distractedly staring at the black butterflies crawling on his arms. "Get some, recharge."

"You don't have your ring," she blurted out.

"Not yet. Alix is working on it."

Alya groaned.

"We need it," she said. "The others can't keep going. Hawk Moth is too strong. Without at least Plagg, we won't manage to win."

Adrien turned to the Gorilla.

"You take this, get in the car, and drive to Switzerland. If it vanishes, you call me."

The bodyguard frowned, studying his face, then Alya's, then Adrien's again.

"I'm going to stay with you and make sure you don't get killed," he retorted. "Is that clear?"

Adrien tried to impersonate his father, lifting his chin, squaring his shoulders and clasping his hands behind his back.

"I-"

He stopped.

The Akuma were not attacking the Gorilla. A few of them had landed on him and he didn't seem to notice them. He still spun his jacket around to keep the rest of the swarm at bay, but with no real fear. Realization hit Adrien. _He keeps his emotions in check._ When his father had purified Picture Perfect's Akuma, he had told his son that the evil spirit would not have been able to corrupt him if he had controlled his feelings better. And the Gorilla, and Nathalie… The two of them were detached, composed, heartless, at least in appearance. There was no rage to exploit in them.

"You take it and you drive away," he ordered again, walking to the car and throwing three packs of energy drinks out. He put the cane on the passenger seat. "Now."

They glared at each other for a moment, then the Gorilla relented. Not two minutes later, the car was driving away.

Adrien breathed in. Alya waved her arms and tried to keep the Akuma of her skin.

"I know what to do," the boy said.

He reached up and snatched a fluttering butterfly, closing his hands around it.

 _You have to take the anger it and let it go._

Black magic shimmered between his fingers.

###


	47. Chapter 47

White butterflies erupted out of Alix. So did everyone.

###

Nino hoped that Alya was safe. He prayed for her to be safe. He knew she couldn't have gone far before being attacked by the Akuma that had invaded the area. With some luck, she would run fast enough to lose them. If she didn't, well… maybe shoving the cane in a storm drain would be enough to keep it out of Ladymoth's reach.

Talking about Ladymoth, Nino had no idea what to do about her. He wished he had listened a little more closely to the battle tactics meeting their team had held earlier. Fighting superheroes turned supervillain was not exactly in his skillset. Especially when harming the superhero turned supervillain was not an option.

The Bubbler could make exploding bubbles but could only throw them at the yoyo, and aiming at a speeding toy the size of his fist was not what one would call easy. The green bubbles? The magical prisons Chat Noir had needed Cataclysm to escape? They were only useful if you managed to trap your enemy in them.

The best Nino could hope for was to keep Hawk Moth busy until help arrived. If he did not pass out first.

Sunny Weather was struggling too. Her thunder was too dangerous, hail would have caused collateral damage and bursts of wind only made it harder for Nino to target Hawk Moth.

They were _so_ going to pass out first. And die.

At least, that was what Nino though until Hawklady propelled herself to the stratosphere and tried to flee.

"Oh no you don't!" he mumbled, chasing after her.

Hawk Moth spiralled and zigzagged in the air, dodging both Nino's bubbles and Aurore's lightning bolts. The villain did not slow down.

"Where is she _going_?" Sunny Weather exclaimed as she caught up with Nino.

The boy's eyes went wide. The blonde was right: LadyMoth was not fleeing a random. Their enemy was trying to get away, that was true, but was going in the direction she had turned to before bolting.

Something was happening, but what?

He understood a few moments later, when black magic spread over Hawk Moth's body and twirled around her like a dark cloud. She dove down, landing in the middle of a street filled with butterflies. Not just _black_ butterflies, however. Two dozen white-winged insects were flying towards Nino and Aurore.

Hawk Moth spread her magic towards the butterflies and corrupted them again.

###

Plagg had been right, when he had commented on Gabriel purifying Akuma with his bare hands. That magic did not _vanish._ Adrien could feel it deep inside his chest, pooling up around his stomach, spreading and receding in waves. The more butterflies he cleansed, the darker his mood grew, but that was fine. He still had not gone past 'mildly depressed', and was not going to.

He had resisted Picture Perfect in a _much_ more vulnerable state of mind. He had been able to control his own possession, to ignore Hawk Moth's voice, to suppress the rage, and that had been before discovering what had happened to his parents and why his life was the way it was.

A little dark magic, scratching at the back of his mind? Heh. It barely bugged him.

He was not going to get angry. He had purpose. He had will. He had hope. And, having absorbed quite a few _white_ butterflies, he also had fancy quantic gloves.

"Makko is making you her _hero_ ," Miss Wifi blurted out after a few moments staring at the blue gloves that had formed over Adrien's hands and kept growing on his arms. "She's making you _Argus._ "

 _The apple did not fall far from the tree._

"I think she is," the boy murmured, a little bewildered.

He tried not to lose his focus. Grab an Akuma, cleanse it, release it. That was what he had to do. Some of the butterflies flew away, some landed on Alya and sank into her skin, and some stayed with Adrien, adding to his new powers.

This was the way to victory.

Miss Wifi did not get a chance to elaborate. She was too busy shaking Akuma of her costume and swatting at the air, trying to keep the creatures away. She was getting the hang of it. Akumas fed from rage and anguish. If you did not give them any, they were powerless against you. They needed consent to possess you. They needed a fetish.

All they were getting from Alya was mild annoyance, eye rolls and variations of 'not falling for that one again, bye'. She was emptying her second energy drink, and Adrien could tell by the look in her eyes that she wouldn't waste time before returning to the fight.

"Alright!" he exclaimed, picking the largest pack of energy drinks up. "We need to get back to my place, or to wherever the battle moved. You go join the others and help Aurore get away. If we want to win this, we'll have to rotate between the three of you."

"Two against Hawk Moth-"

"While the other recharges, yes," Adrien said.

"And while you keep out of sight and keep doing whatever is it you're doing with the evil spirits."

He grinned and started walking towards the mansion.

"I'm just winging it, Miss! Looks like it works!"

She snorted, smiling, and followed him up the street.

They were reaching the intersection when the Bubbler, wrapped in a bubble twice his size, crossed the street at breakneck speed and pinballed between the buildings on both sides, all of that while yelling at the top of his lungs.

Then Marinette… Then _Hawk Moth_ dropped from the sky and dove through the bubble feet first.

###

Butterflies couldn't swim.

Alix was basically a fish. She was a great swimmer. She was great at sports, period. And she could hold her breath for a good while too.

After jumping out of Adrien's dining room, she had raced straight to the Seine with a hundred Akuma on her tail, thrown herself into the river, and swimmed away. Now, it would have been nice is the creepy swarm of magical insects could have given up on chasing her. Some had tried to follow her underwater and drowned. Some were fluttering right above the surface and attacked Alix every time she surfaced to breathe. Sure, there were a lot less of them, but being touched by the things was _not_ pleasant.

Also, the Seine was cold. And dirty. And wet. The teenager had no idea how much time she had spent in it, but she guessed it was somewhere 'too long' and 'forever'. She didn't want to swim too far from the battle - she had to go back and help - so she mostly swam in circles or gripped the ladders on the side of the river to stay in place for a few moments, until the Akuma above her were too numerous for her to emerge and breathe.

She was about to give up and let the current carry her downstream when the swarm abandoned the chase.

Alix surfaced, wiping water off her face.

The butterflies were flying back towards the Place du Chatelet. _All_ of them. Her own - the white ones who had turned her into a time-traveling people-absorbing disaster - popped out of her arms and flew away.

 _Finally._

###

"So what will it be, magic thief?" Hawk Moth asked the Bubbler as she lifted him up by the throat. "Would you rather surrender your powers or surrender yourself?"

Adrien swallowed. There was nothing left of Marinette there. The smirk on their enemy face was nothing like his partner's true smile. The look on her face was the same as the one on Hawk Moth-Gabriel's when Picture Perfect had faced him, days before. In both cases, the boy had only seen an Akuma wearing someone else's skin.

Hawk Moth was using Nino as a human shield, holding him between Sunny Weather and herself and using a parked car as cover to defend herself against Miss Wifi.

Aurore raised her umbrella.

Glistening violet magic spread from Hawk Moth's hand, covering both the Bubbler's face and her arms. A glowing butterfly outline appeared around her eyes. Nino kicked and thrashed, hitting the villain in the stomach and leg, with no visible effect. It did not take long for Nino to stop struggling.

Alya threw an energy drink at Hawk Moth's face. Hail started pouring from the sky.

Adrien charged.

He had no superpowers, but he would have to wing it. His ten-steps plans had two points so far: one, rescue nino. Two, figure out what to do next. Getting Marinette's earrings was definitely somewhere in the list, as they could not touch the Butterfly pin without risking minionization.

As he raced across the street, he watched Hawk Moth raise her free hand and make the yoyo spin over her head to protect herself from the ping-pong ball sized hailstones. Adrien had to hold his gloved hand up and hope for the best. The hailstones _hurt_. They thundered over the roofs and on the surrounding cars, leaving dents on the cars' hoods where they fell. The teenager winced each time one of them hit him, knowing he would be covered in bruises the next day. If he survived the day.

Nino kicked once again, with both feet, managing to free himself. He dropped to the ground, trying to roll away. Adrien did not give Hawk Moth a second to react: he threw himself at her, shoving her down with his full weight.

The spinning yoyo hit the pavement and ricocheted, string tangling.

Hawk Moth grabbed Adrien by the shirt and sent him flying. He crashed against a car and rolled to the ground, trying to get back to his feet.

Their enemy waved her hand, pulling the yoyo back. The string untangled itself and the weapon spun on itself, returning to her hand.

" _Butterfly_ ," she spat. "Like father, like son."

Her magic was oozing out of her, violet laced with black, coating her from fingers to toes.

"I guess so," Adrien replied, slowly standing up.

The hail storm was calming down, turning to drizzling rain. Sunny Weather was wobbling on her feet. The Bubbler had lost his bubble wand and was looking around, trying to find it. Miss Wifi was holding her phone and pressing two fingers against the screen, but she knew as well as Adrien that her powers were useless against Hawk Moth.

It was time to play the 'memento' card.

Adrien took a step forward.

" _Marinette_ ," he called. "If you can hear me, _please_ fight this. You _have_ to fight this."

###


	48. Chapter 48

No powers, no problem.

Alix felt lighter and stronger than ever. She felt relieved. She felt free.

Her brother felt aggravated.

"Are you done _poking_ me?" he yelled after she tapped his cheek for the twenty-seventh time.

"Just checking," she retorted, whirling to the group of confused parents and little sisters around her.

The people she had 'vanished' had popped out of her when Makko's butterflies had left her body, which was great, and she no longer absorbed people, which was better. On top of that, everyone was accounted for. Her dad, her brother, her friends' families, and _Copycat._ They were all safe in the parking lot she had been hiding in, and Hawk Moth wouldn't look for them there.

Theo was the only one not confused out of his mind. Well, he probably was, but he didn't nag her with silly questions she had no answers for. He had listened to her quick summary ("Mister Agreste is an Akuma, Hawk Moth is fighting Sunny Weather") and taken it in. He had not asked "where is Alya?" nor "where is Nino?" nor "what about Marinette?". Instead, he had started talking to Plagg, who was sitting on his shoulder, in hushed whispers, showing him the blue scarf he was holding. Alix didn't completely hate Theo, even if he got a bit motherly on them.

The others wouldn't stop pestering her with questions.

"PEOPLE, I DON'T KNOW!" she ended up shouting. "I'll go back and see what is going on. Copycat, are you ready to go?"

He nodded.

Alix started running towards the exit, only to be stopped by her father, who grabbed her arm.

"Where do you think you are _going_?" he exclaimed.

He did not remember. The father who had called her a time traveler, who had sent her to the past, who knew he had been Clover had remained in an alternate timeline. She had left him behind to find Shroud. The father she faced had no recollection of being a hero. The most he knew about magic was how to protect museum vaults and how to operate gadgets. He did not remember facing Hawk Moth himself. He could not trust her to do so.

"What do you _think?_ " she snapped anyway. "My friends need help!"

"Don't be ridiculous! You don't even have superpowers anymore! You are coming to the Louvre with us!"

Alix couldn't make him remember. She had seen him scratch at his arm but she had not spotted the turtle tattoo - not that she knew what it meant. Maybe saying that catchphrase would help? Turtles are sturdy but clovers are lucky?

She turned to Theo for support.

The jackass looked straight into her eyes and said nothing.

"Copycat!" she exclaimed. "Come on!"

Of _course_ he would go into 'mom mode'. Why not?

"It's dangerous," he replied.

"NO KIDDING? That's why I have to go and help!"

Theo frowned and turned back to Plagg, murmuring something. The Kwami eagerly nodded. Copycat breathed in.

"Mister Kubdel, I _am_ going to need your daughter's assistance," he announced. "Not to fight Hawk Moth, not if I can help it, but there are things only Alix can be trusted to do."

" _What_ things?" Alix's father snapped.

"Dad, _let her go_ ," Jalix cut in, much to her surprise.

Their father whirled to him, furious, but Jalil stood his ground. People turned to them, distracted from their own conversations. Some frowned, some looked at Alix with worry. No one dared to intervene. It was a private family matter.

"Whatever is going on out there is endgame," Jalil insisted. "If she can _do_ something, then she should go. If Hawk Moth wins, he will take over the city. He will take over the world."

"It doesn't mean your sister should go and fix it! She's a child!"

Jalil grabbed the man's arm, pushing his index and middle finger against his wrist, under his watch. He whispered a few words.

Alix watched her father blanch, eyes growing back. He stumbled back, staring at Jalil. She had not heard what her brother had said, but she could guess. _Clovers are lucky._ Jalil was older. Maybe he remembered more of their childhood. Maybe he remembered the old heroes. It was just his thing, old legends. Jalil who translated hieroglyphs and spells to bring the dead back, who would commit the tiniest details to memory and analyze them for days. He was smart, he was observant, and he paid attention to stories of old. He had heard a lot about Argus and Aricia at the Agreste's. Maybe that had jogged his memory.

In any case, he knew how to lift their father's amnesia.

There was a silence, then their dad turned to Alix, his expression a mix of resignation and shock.

"Go," he said.

She took a deep breath and started running, dragging Copycat after her. She could think about the big family secrets later.

"So!" she exclaimed when they arrived outside. "What is that important thing that only I can do?"

"Run," Theo replied.

###

There was not the slightest hint of recognition in Marinette's eyes when she heard Adrien's words. None.

Hawk Moth chuckled and smirked, making her yoyo spin by her side.

"You think your poor, exhausted little girlfriend can somehow listen to you?" she drawled. "That's cute."

And she threw her yoyo at Adrien's head. He duked, rolling on the pavement not to get beheaded, then racing behind the nearest car to get cover. The car's roof was cleanly sliced off by the next pass of the yoyo string.

Alright.

They could not let her use the yoyo. It was scary enough in Ladybug's hands, but she did not use it to cut things into pieces. Well, she dug holes into the occasional flying bus, but that was it. She was not a murderous supervillain. Hawk Moth, on the other hand…

He flattened himself on the ground and tried to crawl away. Any position where the yoyo could ricochet against something instead of hitting him was a good position. Looking under the car, he saw Hawk Moth's feet leave the ground and the Bubble's land where she had been. Then things started exploding.

Adrien looked up.

Hawk Moth was hovering above the street, her pink wings fluttering behind her. The Bubbler was bombarding her with red soap bubbles which she hit with the yoyo as they came, making them explode before they could harm her. On top of that, she had to do the same with the shower of pause icons Miss Wifi was throwing at her. It kept the villain busy but it could go on for hours.

With a normal Akuma, they would have used Lucky Charm, taken the corrupted item back and freed the victim. Here, Ladybug and her spell were out of the equation, and Marinette's fist was firmly balled around the Butterfly Miraculous, that couldn't be touched nor destroyed anyway.

They would not get her to use Lucky Charm nor to time travel, so they couldn't hope for the transformation to wear off either.

 _Trap her, cut through the hood, take the earrings._

Hawk Moth was not about to let herself be trap-

Copycat dropped from the sky, his rapidly shrinking staff in his hand, and landed on Marinette with both feet.

"Missed me, my lady?" he said after crashing to the ground with her.

She was flat on her back on the street, her wings buzzing against the asphalt. Theo, who had been expecting the collision and the landing, was standing over her, staff pressed against her chest.

He was wearing Adrien's scarf.

Hawk Moth looked up, staring at the scarf. She opened and closed her mouth, eyes wide, lips trembling.

"A-Adrien?" she murmured, reaching up.

Adrien crouched to remain out of sight and tore the car's side mirror off, putting it down on the sidewalk and turning it so he could watch the scene. While he was trying to adjust the angle, he heard a "you have to _help_ me!" from Marinette. Her tone tore his heart to pieces.

Finally managing to get the mirror to show him Copycat and Marinette, he watched Theo crouch carefully, keeping Marinette pinned to the ground. The glimmering coat of magic around her had vanished. It was the only thing Adrien could say for sure: the reflection in the mirror was too small to read the look on her face. Copycat's body language seemed to indicate prudence, however. He was very slow in his motions, and reached for Hawk Moth's hood with one hand, without releasing his hold on his staff.

As soon as Copycat was close enough, she grabbed him by the throat and covered him in black magic.

Everyone yelled and a pause icon hit Hawk Moth in the face, but Copycat had clearly expected to be attacked. He made his staff grow, keeping it pressed to the villain's chest, and propelling himself into the air. She rolled away and he landed on a roof after a double salto.

So much for snapping her out of the possession.

Adrien breathed in, idly brushing Akumas off him. Their one flimsy idea had just failed, they needed others, and they needed them quickly. Sure, they had four fighters now. They could relay each other, covering for whoever needed to rest. They could keep fighting for a while. But they would have to do better than just 'keep fighting' to win this.

He started moving around, slipping behind the parked cars and the trees, trying to get closer to Copycat. It wasn't that easy. Chat Noir didn't have ranged attacks, even if his staff could be used as a ranged weapon. On top of that, staying at a distance from Hawk Moth meant allowing her to give her yoyo momentum, which made the cutting string more dangerous.

Copycat _had_ to go for hand-to-hand combat. It made it difficult for Adrien to get to him.

All he could do was watch the battle, an endless dance of explosions, dodges and thunder strikes between his friends and Hawk Moth. It went on for ages before Copycat happened to be thrown across the street by their foe, landing close to Adrien by a stroke of luck.

"Theo!" the boy called, running to him. His voice dropped to a whisper when he arrived by the man's side. "Theo, where is my _ring?_ "

The question made the sculptor pause.

"I don't have it," he replied, taking the scarf off. "I wasn't about to bring it straight to Hawk Moth, I gave it to Alix."

That made sense. Hawk Moth had two Miraculous. Delivering him a third on a silver platter was not a good idea.

"Alright," Adrien said. "And where is A-"

He froze.

A cloud of Akuma was forming over the street, coming from all directions. They were regrouping.

"What the…" he murmured.

A dozen white butterflies burst out of that swarm, flying down to Nino, who was flying the highest.

Hawk Moth spotted the butterflies and flew up, throwing herself between the insects and the Bubbler. She spread her magic around her like a dark fog, only calling it back after a moment. The white butterflies had turned black again.

Adrien stared at the creatures, realization dawning on him.

"I know what to do," he announced. " _I know what to do._ "

###


	49. Chapter 49

Adrien had drowsed off.

He had not meant to, then he had ended up sitting on the chemistry classroom's floor, with his back against the wall and his father's spectral arm around his shoulders. Tiredness had won over nerves. He had closed his eyes 'just for a second' and, upon waking up, had no idea of the time it was.

He couldn't tell what had woken him up either: the pink light, Gabriel moving or the weight lifted off the side of his head. Still drowsy, he wondered if his father's chin had been resting against his hair. Then, with a start, he realized that the pink light was coming from a butterfly outline around Shroud's eyes.

"Hawk moth is calling you," the boy gasped.

His father did not turn to him. It looked like he was staring straight ahead, though you couldn't be sure, with his eyes being nothing more than ice-blue light behind the layers of cloth wrapped around his face.

He replied with a noncommittal hum.

Adrien grabbed his shoulder, making sure to place his hand on fabric and not black fog.

"Father!"

"It would seem your friends are giving Haw Moth a bad time," Shroud replied, extending a shaking hand in front of him. "She requests my intervention."

His son blanched, trying to take his hand to steady it. His fingers passed through the black fog, and he held his hand next to Gabriel's, hesitant.

His father clicked his tongue.

"I don't take orders," he declared.

The boy pulled back, staring at him. The pink butterfly outline was glowing bright, and Gabriel's shape was trembling, tendrils of black smoke shivering around him. The ghost lowered his hand, putting it on his knee. His other fist was balled at his side, tightly closed around the corrupted pendant.

Adrien swallowed.

"You have to let me free you."

He knew saying that could not go over well. He remembered his own reaction at the idea of being purified, as Picture Perfect. The irrational fear, the instinct to flee… There was no way his father would not defend himself.

Still, the only reaction he got was a glare.

"I… You… You can fight it," Adrien continued. "I know you can. I did. And you are stronger than I ever was."

Once again, his words were met with silence. Gabriel kept looking at him, showing nothing of his thoughts. At least, he had not attacked, but that did not make Adrien feel any more reassured.

The teenager took a deep breath, gathering his courage. He opened his palm and held his hand between them, praying for his dad to let himself be helped.

A minute went by, then two, then five.

Gabriel was not a man who justified his actions, ever. He took a decision, always so sure to be right, and acted on them without explaining his reasoning. It was incredibly frustrating to whoever interacted with him. When you were his son, it tended to hurt too.

All Adrien could do was wait and pray while his father examined his options and calculated the outcomes. Even if Shroud no longer had a face, the boy could picture Gabriel's expression perfectly, the cogs turning, the frown, the eyes shifting to the side as he mulled over the problem.

An eternity later, Gabriel raised his balled fist. He opened it and placed the pendant in Adrien's palm, taking his hand as he did so and squeezing tightly.

He couldn't bring himself to let go, so Adrien gave him time, waiting patiently for his father to find strength.

It took a while, but Gabriel pulled his hand back and left the necklace behind.

Adrien pressed his thumb to the center of the flower, pressing as hard as the magical glove he was wearing helped him to. The delicate pendant cracked and broke. An Akuma escaped and tried to flutter away, but Adrien snatched it from the air and trapped it between his hands.

 _Absorb the anger._

He had seen his father do it but did not understand the mechanics behind it. As it turned out, he only had to _want_ to do it. Darkness seeped between his fingers and coated his hand, vanishing into his skin until the blackish fog was entirely gone.

Shroud transformed back into Gabriel.

Adrien could feel the darkness squirming inside him, like a twisting snake around his stomach.

 _Let it go_ , he told himself.

He couldn't do that, not totally, but focusing on hope and relief helped. His father was free. That was good. Adrien could ignore the fading rage bottled inside him.

He threw himself at Gabriel and hugged him. His father wrapped his arms around him and held him close.

Not a second later, Chat Noir burst into the room and stopped dead in her tracks. Adrien gaped at _her_. It was a short girl with spiky pink hair, who looked at them with a confused frown.

"Wow, you saved yourself?" she exclaimed.

He blinked.

"Who are you?"

###

"Protect Adrien."

The word had traveled quickly, from Copycat to Miss Wifi to Sunny Weather to Nino. Nino was all for it, especially since his best pal was a bit underpowered at the moment. He had nearly gotten himself killed trying to talk to Marinette, and Nino's heart had nearly stopped in his chest when he had seen Hawk Moth nearly take the model's head off with one yoyo strike.

Protecting Adrien was a great idea.

Copycat dropped fragments of instructions whenever he could, when he passed next to one of them, but Hawk Moth didn't give him the time to elaborate. Still, the instructions were simple enough. 'Keep Ladymoth busy', 'rotate', 'recharge', 'don't let her near Adrien'.

They did just that, with two or three of them focusing on fighting the villain, while the most tired of them slipped away to gulp down an energy drink and rest a little. Staying into the fight was harder for Theo, who couldn't fly, but Aurore and Alya teamed up to create platforms out of debris and garbage, which Sunny Weather sent flying and Miss Wifi froze into the air, to make sure Copycat could climb to their opponent. Aurore froze Akuma at random, sending them crashing to the ground in fist-sized hailstones.

Ladymoth didn't get a moment to breathe. Not that she was showing any sign of getting tired.

Nino ended up landing to rest a little, leaving the whole supervillain battle thing to Alya and the others. He grabbed an energy drink and sped to the end of the street, turning at the corner and opening the can.

He spotted Adrien not twenty feet away, busy chasing butterflies. Nino joined him.

As he trotted to Adrien, he watched him catch an Akuma, close his hands over it and release a white butterfly. The insect landed on Adrien's arm and vanished into it. The blue gloves the teenager was wearing spread to his elbow.

Then, the blond noticed his best friend.

"Nino!" he exclaimed, running to him. "Are you okay? How are you holding up?"

The DJ wheezed out a 'fine', followed by a breathless 'what are you doing?'.

"I know how to win this," Adrien replied, his tone just a little too calm, just a little too empty. "We need to focus on the Akuma."

Nino frowned.

"Dude, are _you_ alright?"

Absorbing dark magic like that? That didn't sound healthy.

Adrien nodded, grabbing his wrist. His blue gloves shrunk and a dozen white butterflies flew out of him, diving straight for Nino and burying themselves into his chest. Nino felt his powers grow and his energy raise a little.

"I'm okay," Adrien assured. "I just need to catch more of them. Nino, this is _how we win_ ," he exclaimed, waving at the swarm of Akuma over their heads. "If we can't take the Miraculous away from Hawk Moth, then we need to take Makko out of the Miraculous!"

Nino froze.

 _Of course._

It had been under their noses the whole time. Their powers came from Makko. The butterflies were bits and parts of her, and the more they absorbed, the less magic Hawk Moth had at his disposal. That was why he had wanted, even _needed_ to attack those he called 'magic thieves'. That was why Ladymoth had flown away from the battle earlier and hurried to corrupt that handful of white butterflies. Hawk Moth was not just afraid of seeing the new heroes' powers increases. The real danger for the villain was to see Makko freed.

Adrien's idea was sound.

That being said, Nino thought as he looked up at the sky, there were hundreds of Akuma. There was no way Adrien would manage to free them all. Even if he had the time and the energy, he was not Ladybug. From the look on his best friend's face, the emptiness in his voice, Nino was willing to bet he _stored_ the Akuma's dark magic instead of purging it. He was corrupting himself every time he freed a butterfly.

Nino downed his energy drink, considering the other solutions.

"You have to keep Marinette busy," Adrien told him. "I'm slow, but it's _working_ , I think."

"I have to try something," the Bubbler replied, throwing his empty can at a trash can and missing by two feet. He winced.

Well, he was a redeemed supervillain. Littering was hardly the worst thing he had done.

"Try _what_?" Adrien asked.

Nino propelled himself up, with a trail of violet bubbles, shooting through the cloud of Akuma. As he came down, he hit the swarm with his bubble wand, forcing half a dozen butterfly to pass through the hoop and trapping them in a pink soap bubble. Green bubbles were prisons, red bubbles were bombs, pink bubbles… It was time to check.

He landed on the sidewalk, pulling the bubble down with him. Then he shrunk it, siphoning the soap away. The gigantic bubble shrunk to the size of a beach ball, then basketball, then - gradually - to that of a tennis ball, squeezing the Akuma tighter and tighter until their wings were forced through the surface of the bubble.

The wings came out. The darkness did not.

Nino pulled the rest of the soap back and watched white butterflies scatter in every direction.

"Wow," he said. "Wow. I can't believe that worked."

###

Alix had found skates.

More precisely, Alix had stolen skates from a sports store after throwing a brick through the window, but she had left a note with her father's name and number.

She had no idea how useful she would be soaked wet and with no superpowers, but she figured she could come up with _some_ way to annoy the hell out of Hawk Moth. So she sped back to the Agreste's, zooming past Akumas that could not catch up with her (butterflies were many things, but quick was not one of them). She found the courtyard deserted. Not that it was a big issue. It wasn't hard to locate a battle when it involved flying people who threw thunderbolts and shining disks of pink light.

It didn't take her long to join the others. She didn't see Adrien (neither the present nor the future one), nor her future self, but the others were there.

Sunny and Copycat were doing the hard fighting, with Aurore trying to blast Hawk Moth out of the sky. The blonde flew as far up as she could without going through the thick of the Akuma cloud, then sent wind blasts and tornadoes at their enemy. Copycat, who couldn't fly, had to use tactics such as 'pouncing', 'pole vaulting' and 'jumping from perch to perch'. Miss Wifi had made stairs of sorts, with paused items hovering everywhere above the street.

It wasn't the most efficient fight Alix had seen in her life, but Hawk Moth couldn't breathe for a second. As soon as she stilled, she got hit.

The Bubbler was flying above them too, but he was not helping the others. He seemed to be focused on the swarm of Akuma instead.

Alix watched him a dozen of them in a bubble and release them purified.

She zigzagged to Alya.

"What's going on?" she asked, making sure not to stand in her friend's way.

"You're _back_?" the blogger exclaimed. Then she wrinkled her nose. "Which Alix are you?"

"Present Alix. The other made a run for it with everyone else."

The white butterflies Nino had freed flew down to Sunny Weather and vanished into her hair. Alix did the math.

"We're catching the Akuma?" she asked.

"Looks like it. Nino and Adrien are on it, but the things are all over town."

Alix grinned. She could help with that.

Not five minutes later, she had stolen a pool net from the Grand Paris' roof and was dashing back to the battle scene, snatching butterflies from the air on her way there. She might not have been tall, but she had good aim and the net's pole gave her range. Sure, a few Akuma escaped - the damn things could squeeze through anything - but she still managed to drag twenty of them back to Nino. She shook the net right under him and sped away.

###

"There's two of you," Gabriel said when Alix dropped them on a roof three buildings away from the battle.

He had spotted present-time Adrien underneath them, and was staring at him with empty eyes.

Future-Adrien - the one standing by his dad's side - squirmed at the words. His willingness to walk away from the battle and his promising his father he would not run into danger definitely had less of an impact when you knew there was another Adrien going around. It exposed the whole thing as the trick it had been.

Gabriel did not comment, watching the double of his son catch a butterfly. If he had looked to the left, he would have seen seen the Bubbler trap them into bubbles while Sunny Weather was keeping Hawk Moth away.

"It's a long story," Alix said, idly playing with her belt.

She was not used to Chat Noir's costume. She also kept poking the bell at her collar. The explanations she had given them - roughly "Plagg thought Hawk Moth would try to call Shroud back so he sent me to fight him, not that I was needed, apparently." - had been punctuated by little dings as her claws tapped the bell.

Adrien's father snorted.

"You seem under the impression that I have never time-traveled before, Miss Kubdel."

There was no humor in his voice, barely any snark. It sounded flat and exhausted.

After a second of hesitation, Adrien put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. Gabriel didn't react to the touch, but he started talking.

"Purging the butterflies is a good idea," he said. "The more of Makko's magic we free, the weaker Hawk Moth gets."

"Then I'll help," Adrien exclaimed.

He knew how to do it. He _had_ done it. And, from the look of it, the other Adrien had figured it out as well.

His father grabbed his arm to hold him back.

For a moment, they stared at each other, Gabriel with a frown on his face and Adrien with resignation. Then Alix untransformed in a burst of yellow light while Plagg spiraled out of his Miraculous.

She threw the ring at Adrien, who fumbled to catch it.

"Or maybe you could, you know, go kick some ass as Chat Noir. Not that I wanna tell you want to do or anything."

Plagg landed on Adrien's shoulder.

"That sounds like a good plan," he said.

"Don't be ridiculous," Gabriel cut in. "The _second_ Hawk Moth will realize you have the Miraculous, she'll go after you and discard everything else."

Adrien turned towards the battle, watching Sunny Weather force Marinette to dodge lightning strikes while Nino cleansed Akuma by trapping them in his soap bubbles.

"You know what?" the young hero commented. "That would actually be _great_."

His father took a step forward, taking the scene in. Adrien watched his face, saw the cogs turn, and saw the instant realization hit him.

"Don't get caught," Gabriel said.

###

 _I wish I could film this,_ Alya thought when Chat Noir jumped from a roof and landed on one of her makeshift flying platforms, after a triple salto.

It was him. It was actually him, with the ring, with the attitude, with the grin… and with the puns, as she realized when he opened his mouth.

"Only you could get two Miraculous and end up half as good as the original owners. Doesn't that bug you, Hawkie?"

Up to that point, the battle had been hard but pretty even. Their team had found a rhythm, and they had managed to keep the situation under control. They had even gained a little advantage when Nino and Adrien had started to cleanse the Akuma. _That_ had enraged Hawk Moth, who had fought harder than before.

That being said, 'harder than before' was nothing compared to the villain's reaction to Chat Noir's presence. Hawk Moth dropped from the sky, so fast that Alya thought their enemy wanted to jump through time, and sent the yoyo spinning from the ground, trying to cut Chat in two.

Aurore had not anticipated that drop - so far, Hawk Moth had overed above the street to make it harder for Miss Wifi to aim - and had to glide several feet to target their foe through the cloud of items Alya had frozen in the air as platforms for Copycat.

Theo jumped down, trying to attack Hawk Moth on the ground. He landed a blow, then the villain sent him flying and raced towards Chat Noir, who fled.

 _What?_

The superhero grinned as he did, jumping from a side of the road to the other and somersaulting to avoid the yoyo when Hawk Moth threw it at him. Their opponent chased him.

 _What is he DOING?_ Alya wondered.

Copycat had the exact same question, but _he_ yelled it. Then they all followed Adrien and Hawk Moth. There was no point questioning Chat Noir's action. He had to know what he was doing.

Alya regretted not being airborne. She did. Alix had rollers, Copycat was a copy of Chat Noir and just as fast and agile, and Nino and Aurore could fly. Which meant that, not knowing where they were going and having no way to teleport herself to an unknown location, she had to run after them.

She felt some comfort when they turned at the corner, as Adrien - not Chat Noir, but the other Adrien, the one who had been absorbing dark magic - had to sprint to catch up with her and ended up trotting by her side.

He tried to ask her what was going on, but couldn't do that panting and wheezing. _He_ was not transformed, though he wore fancy magical gloves. All of a sudden, not being able to fly didn't feel like such a problem. At least, Lady Wifi didn't get too winded. Not after receiving a dozen new butterflies from Makko.

Chat Noir led them past the Bourgeois Hotel and past his house, crossing the Place du Chatelet and stopping on the bridge that crossed the Seine. He stopped there, turning back to face Hawk Moth with his staff spinning in his hands. The villain jumped mid-run, wings spread, and sent the yoyo at the bridge.

The silvery string cut through the steel and cement as easily as through butter.

Sunny Weather had caught up and tried to distract Hawk Moth with a tornado. Their enemy reacted by trying to take Aurore's head off, then kept the yoyo spinning at random angles, ensuring that no one could get near.

A part of the bridge bent. Chat Noir jumped off it, making his staff grow and planting it in the river. He let himself slide down to the water and dropped into it with a splash.

Hawk Moth hovered above the Seine, trying to spot him. The yoyo was spinning so fast it made an effective shield against Nino's bubbles.

Alya stopped by the railing, trying to figure out why Chat Noir had wanted to move the fight. She looked up at the Bubbler, who had been distracted from the Akuma and was trying to keep Chat Noir safe. Copycat would not be able to fight Hawk Moth without the platforms. The only useful fighter they had was Sunny Weather.

 _Oh._

"NINO!" she yelled. "DIVE!"

Her friend turned and blinked, so she pointed at the water and at his back. She saw him gasp, then he dropped into the Seine, holding his bubble wand under him. He hit the water so hard Alya worried for him. He did not surface immediately either, which did not help with the nerves. But the rippling water took a pinkish sheen that spread and spread as the Bubbler's soap mixed with it. It even glowed a little.

"STORMY WEATHER!" Blue-gloved-Adrien shouted.

Aurore looked down, looked at the Seine, then looked up and gave them a storm.

The river's water flew up - Nino had to propel himself out of it, dragging Chat Noir with him - and turned into clouds that swirled over the entire block. Then they came down as pink pouring rain, over the swarm of Akuma whose darkness washed away with the deluge. Hundreds of white butterflies flew up or fell to the ground. Those who could fly dove into the closest person, be it Aurore, Nino or Alya.

Hawk Moth swayed in the air.

Not a second later, pink sparkles covered the villain, whose wings faded. The violet costume turned red again. The hood vanished, leaving only Ladybug, who dropped like a stone.

Alya swiped her phone and paused her before she could crash.

###

Chat Noir ran to Alya, who had just managed one of the nicest catches he had ever seen, and on a supervillain, at that.

The blogger was not moving, standing under the magical rain as it died down without even trying to keep her phone dry. She made soft snorting noises, staring at the paralyzed Ladybug stuck ten feet above the Seine's waters.

It took a few moments for Alya to actually move, and when she did, it was to sit down on the pavement and collapse into giggles.

"Oh my god oh my god oh my _god_!" she squeaked. "The time power are _Makko_ 's. The time powers are MAKKO'S!"

She giggled again, rocking back and forth, and apparently not quite managing to stop. Nino joined her and grabbed her by the shoulders, holding her until she calmed down.

Chat Noir exchanged a look with his other self. They both nodded, and Chat turned to Aurore, who was landing next to them.

"Mind giving me a lift to my partner?" he asked. "I have earrings to collect."

Not two minutes later, he was sitting on his staff next to Marinette and wondering how to remove earrings from a person frozen in time. It took some adjustments and a little help from Miss Wifi, who exchanged 'total immobility' for 'partial paralysis', making sure that Hawk Moth could not move more than their ears.

 _Then_ Adrien took her Miraculous off and watched her revert back into Marinette.

"YOU DID IT!" Tikki exclaimed as she burst out of the Miraculous, not even waiting to have stopped spiraling. "YOU DID IT! You were AMAZING, everyone!"

Then she wobbled and fell, exhausted. Chat Noir caught her with one hand.

"We did it," he repeated with a grin. "Though we still have one problem to solve." - He pointed at Marinette's balled fist. - "We can't touch the Butterfly pin."

"I don't think that will be a problem," a crystalline voice cut in from above.

He looked up, startled, just as he heard Sunny Weather gasp.

White butterflies were coalescing above them, forming a small silhouette that went from blinding white to pink. A second later, Makko emerged from the light.

"Look," she whispered, pointing at Marinette's hand.

Chat Noir did and paled. Black magic was seeping from her fingers, dropping down into the river in small droplets.

"What the-" he murmured.

The droplets turned to smoke as they hit the water, and the smoke to nothing.

"He is _escaping_?"

"He is _defeated_ ," Makko corrected, landing on his shoulder.

Tikki nodded and flew from his hand to his other shoulder, looking down at the tendrils of black smoke.

"You cannot destroy a spirit, just vanquish it. Hawk Moth will be back, but not before a long, long time. You couldn't have done better."

He nodded, relieved.

Makko darted down to Marinette's hand, now clean of all traces of dark magic.

"You're going to have to hold her," the pink kwami said with a smile. " _Miss Wifi?_ "

Adrien handed the Miraculous to Tikki and wrapped his arms around his partner. Alya freed her with one swipe on the screen of her phone.

There was some yelling and flailing. Marinette had apparently not expected to find herself suspended above the Seine, soaked to the bone, in Chat Noir's arms. She calmed down quickly, however, looking around in bewilderment. Then her confusion faded.

"You did it!" she murmured. "You did it!" - She groaned and shook her head. - "I thought I'd never wake up. Agh."

She turned to Makko and opened her hand without being prompted. The Kwami collected her Miraculous, softly pulling it away from Marinette's palm. It left a puncture wound and a tiny drop of blood that the teenage girl brushed away. She turned to Chat Noir.

"Sooo, you defeated Hawk Moth and you didn't even need me?" she said, grinning to him.

"I had help."

"Do I get a pound it anyway?"

He laughed and pointed at the city with his chin, trying to show her the destroyed bridge, the thunderstruck architecture, as well as his other self and the two Alix.

"I believe you'll have to work for it, my lady. We still need you."

###

Tikki joined Plagg on top of the Place du Chatelet's fountain, to watch the children celebrate.

Ladybug's repairing spell had brought the city back to normal, though it had taken a toll on the red Kwami, who felt like eating a bakery and sleeping until the next millennium. And it was only 2015. She still meant it.

The two timelines had merged, leaving only one Alix and one Adrien.

The boy was hugging Marinette and it didn't look like he wanted to let go.

"They did it," Tikki told her brother.

The black cat grumbled and curled up, trying to sleep.

"Of course they did."

"I hadn't seen a team so good in decades," his sister continued in a cheerful voice. "They all did good."

That got her a 'hmpf' and a flick of the tail.

Tikki turned back to the children. There was a lot of hugging and squealing going on, with Marinette being smothered by about everyone (except Alix, who sulked on the side and rolled her eyes at those sickening displays of affection). Theo didn't hug the girl, but he squeezed her shoulder and congratulated her with obvious pride. He did that to the other children too, with varying results.

Alya was taking pictures. Nino (unsurprisingly) was standing next to her and looking at her with a tenderness he had not noticed yet. Adrien - who no longer had the empty eyes of a boy who had absorbed too much dark magic, nor the mischievous cat eyes of his superhero alter-ego - was laughing with them and keeping an arm around Marinette.

Makko was watching them from afar, hovering next to the gates of the Agreste's home.

Tikki frowned, gesturing for her sister to join them. She stopped when she noticed a silhouette behind the gates.

Gabriel Agreste was leaning against the courtyard's wall, watching his son without showing himself. There was no relief on his face, no smile, no joy, just sadness.

"Oh," Tikki murmured.

Plagg looked up.

"What now?"

Tikki pointed at their sister and her chosen. They watched as Makko darted between the gates' bars and nuzzled against the man's cheek. That got a smile out of him.

Plagg curled back on himself, trying to sleep. He could feel Tikki's, glare, however.

"What?" he exclaimed. "It's up to him to fix things. Unless he brings me cheese, it's not my problem."

The red Kwami sighed, shaking her head.

Mister Agreste turned his back to the Place du Chatelet and started walking back to his house.

Adrien's voice stopped him.

"Father!" the boy called from across the square. "Wait"

Gabriel did not turn but he did wait. His son ran to him, grabbed him by the arm, and pulled him into a crushing hug. He hugged him back.

###


	50. Epilogue

The immediate aftermath of victory had been hugs, laughter and celebration.

The not-so-immediate aftermath had been panic. As often happens when a haphazard team of teenagers saves the world, realization came knocking, along with its best pal 'real life'.

"Oh no nononono I have to call my parents!" Marinette had shrieked when Adrien had raced to his home to join his dad.

That high-pitched exclamation had been followed by a gasp from Alya, who had started drumming on her phone's screen. Nino, being a little less dramatic, had just mumbled a 'oh, right' and patted his pockets. In the end, he just muttered something about finding a phone at Adrien's. Alix had just rolled in a circle around them, shrugging.

"I'll see if I can find them. They're either in that parking lot or at the Louvre, won't tell me long," she had announced before dashing away.

Aurore had stretched.

"Well, I suppose I'll just walk home," she had said, with no mention of her parents or their state of worry.

As for Theo, he had mumbled something about calling his mom, sounding a lot more panicked than even Marinette.

Marinette had not paid that much attention to them, because _she was going to die._

"Where did Ladybug go?" Makko asked as Tikki joined her and Plagg in the kitchen of the Agreste's home.

Plagg had wanted cheese and raided the fridge as soon as Adrien had vanished with his father. Apparently, Makko had joined him at some point, and was nibbling at sugar cubes. She looked dejected, which was only natural, and did not quite meet her sister's eyes.

Tikki landed between the two of them and snatched a sugar cube.

"Alya managed to get her parents on the phone by calling the Louvre's… webmaster, I think? He gave her the number of the gallery director, aaaand… well. It took a while, but 'Mister Kubdel' had indeed brought everyone's parents to the vaults. Copycat is driving the children to the museum."

Makko nodded.

For a moment, all they heard was the faint crunching noises of Tikki's quietly chewing her sugar cube and the disgusting gulps and burps of Plagg's cheese-inhaling technique. Then the pink kwami turned to her siblings.

"I'm sorry," she told them. "For everything that happened. I'm sorry."

Plagg yawned.

"Meh. No sappiness. Possession victims get a pass," he reminded them before burying his nose in a piece of Roquefort.

" _Plagg!_ " both of his sisters exclaimed.

"Whaaat? It's true, isn't it?"

Tikki acquiesced.

"Yes. It is. But what I don't understand is _how_ Hawk Moth could prey on you, Makko. He should not have been able to. We are not human. We are bound. What _happened?_ "

Makko's wing fluttered and folded. She curled up.

"Half of my magic was a country away with Argus," she murmured. "It made me weaker to begin with. That much power away from my Miraculous was a great risk. And then Aricia's armor was so badly damaged and… and I remember being so exhausted, and arguing with Clover and Chat Noir, and then…"

Plagg burped.

"Tears in the armor, cracks in the Miraculous," he commented, in a rare display of sagaciousness. "Has to be how he got in."

Tikki winced.

"It never happened before," she pointed out.

"Hawk Moth had never tried before either," Plagg retorted. "It only takes the once."

The red Kwami frowned.

"We'll have to warn the others," she said. "Not that I know where they are, but they need to know."

"There's no hurry," the black cat mumbled, licking his piece of cheese. "It will be a while before Hawk Moth comes back."

Tikki took a deep breath to calm herself. She was pretty hard to annoy, but Plagg had his ways.

"Can't you be serious every now and then?" she grumbled.

The only answer she got was a suction noise and some gargling. She grimaced and turned to Makko.

"What do you plan to do now?"

Her sister tilted her head to the side, looking at the wall.

"I'm going to stay here for a little while. With Gabriel. It was… He will need time to get over this."

Plagg made a faint noise that earned him a glare from the otherwise sweet-tempered butterfly. He didn't like Gabriel. He had never liked Gabriel, not even a decade before, when Argus and the previous Chat Noir had worked as a team with Clover. There had be tension back then and it it had not disappeared. It would never disappear.

Tikki tried to defuse the situation.

"What about the children?" she asked. "They did a marvellous job together."

"They did!" Makko exclaimed, flying up and twirling in the air. "They were sooooo good at this. I will have to tell them that."

She had slipped away so quick after getting her Miraculous back that no one had found a second to talk to her. Then again, it was not out of character from her: she had fluttered from one people to another for thousands of years, giving out sparks of magic but not necessarily showing herself. Her true chosen, like Gabriel and Alice Agreste, were few and far between. It was the norm for her to vanish.

Still, she was always proud of her heroes.

"They did so much better than I expected!" the pink Kwami continued, glowing with pride. "The laundry pods! And the Seine, of course. That was a stroke of genius. I thought Nino would have to go through the entire Akuma cloud with bubbles."

"That was Chat Noir's idea," Plagg chimed in, never missing an opportunity to brag.

Makko twirled in the air, ecstatic.

"Adrien is _such_ a good Chat Noir," she said, landing next to Plagg and nuzzling against him. "You _will_ be staying with him, right?"

"Of course I will be staying with him," the cat mumbled. "I don't want to have to train another human so soon."

"We all know you did not give the boy a single fighting tip, Plagg," Tikki commented.

"Who said anything about fighting tips? I was talking about his education on the finest varieties of cheese."

His sister groaned.

He snorted.

"And I would be careful about throwing stones if I were you, miss Glass House. How are things going with the cookie girl?"

"Marinette's parents owning a bakery has nothing to do with the reasons why she became Ladybug," Tikki assured him. "Now, it's not like I am complaining about the pastries, but she is a skilled girl with a sharp mind and a will of steel."

"And cookies," Plagg finished.

Makko giggled.

Tikki huffed.

###

"It is unacceptable, Marinette!" Tom exclaimed as his teenage daughter cringed and curled up on their living room sofa. "You lied to us for _months_. Anything could have happened to you, and we would never have known! It is _absolutely_ unacceptable!"

"But, dad, the city needed-"

"Don't interrupt, Marinette!" Sabine cut in. "Your father is right. This can't go on."

"But…"

Tom crossed his arms and raised his chin.

"You listen to me, young miss. This cannot go on. If you have to go out and save the world, you _have_ to tell us where you are going, what you are facing, and who is going with you, do you hear me? There will be no lying and sneaking around! Do I make myself clear?"

###

Some parents react to learning their child is a superhero by establishing new sets of rules.

Others lock themselves in their office and won't open the door.

###

The not-immediate-anymore aftermath of victory - the next day, that is - went well. Unless you happened to be around Alya Césaire. If you were, like Nino, you found yourself wishing for some of those free earplugs from the Grand Paris.

He was skipping school. Well. He wasn't altogether sure he was skipping school. He had not checked if school was on, though it was apparently a school day. Alya's parents had decided they wanted to keep their daughter where they could see her for at least a few days. She had sent a text to Nino to tell him exactly that so, instead of dragging himself to a potential chemistry lesson, the boy had gone straight to his friend's place. Ladybug's magic had fixed the place up nicely. You couldn't tell it had been attacked by Plot Hole and Hawk Moth. Then again, the apartment was occupied by an undisclosed number of 'little sisters' and looked like a war zone at all times.

The two teenagers had spent the best part of the morning in Alya's bedroom, working on the blog and browsing news sites. Alya was not satisfied by their results.

"It's not _fair_!" she exclaimed, again. "The Ladyblog never had so much traffic and I have nothing to post. No videos, no pictures, nothing. I was so busy with the heroics that I didn't get to film a single thing!"

"You wrote five separate articles, Alya," Nino pointed out.

"But that's not _footage_."

The door, that had been left ajar by the constant flux of sisters, opened.

"What is that about footage?" Adrien said as he peeked in, eyebrows raised.

"Hey! Come in," Nino greeted him, not so surprised by his best friend's arrival. He knew Alya had texted everyone. "Alya wanted videos to upload on the blog but she doesn't have any, and the news site are stealing her visitors."

"But we _do_ have videos," the blond announced, throwing a flash drive at Alya.

She caught it, eyes wide and all of her attention focused on Adrien.

"What's that?"

"Security footage from my home and from the Grand Paris," he replied. "I asked Chloé."

The blogger blinked.

"And she just gave it to you?"

"It helped that I gave her a new Eephone to replace the one I cursed. And a full set of phone accessories to go with it. And I promised to show her my father's winter collection before it is released."

Alya had stopped listening midway through his explanations. She had plugged the flash drive to her computer and browsed through the directories it contained.

Adrien chuckled.

"Just make sure to edit them so we aren't shown untransformed, alright?"

"Of course, of course," their friend muttered, watching the first video.

It showed Picture Perfect fighting Hawk Moth. She gaped and played the sequence over and over again.

Nino turned to Adrien.

"Your dad let you take that?"

"He… yes. He kind of… anyway we're going to have to explain the world that Hawk Moth is a dark spirit using people as puppets. Not that the world doesn't know that."

"Exclusive interview for the Ladyblog," Alya announced without even turning.

"Of _course_ ," Adrien said. "But, about that… We'll 'fail to mention' who Hawk Moth possessed. No mentions of my father, _anywhere_. Please."

Plagg popped out of Adrien's messenger bag.

"Akuma victims get a pass, yadda yadda. Oooh, cheetos!" he exclaimed, flying up to Nino and landing next to the snacks mrs Césaire had brought them earlier.

His chosen looked at the ceiling, sighing the long suffering sigh of someone entirely too the antics of the cheese-obsessed Kwami.

"Are the others coming too?" he asked, before his friends could react to his comment.

"Alix said she'd drop by, 'as soon as she gets Jalil off her back'," Nino replied, raising his voice to cover the sound of crumpled plastic and munching noises coming from Plagg.

Alya turned her chair towards them.

"Aurore _forbid_ me to call her before at least three in the afternoon so she can 'sleep', but then she is coming here for her exclusive interview."

"She has an exclusive interview _too_?" Nino blurted out, before the stupidity of the question hit him.

They wouldn't escape the exclusive interviews. You didn't ask Lois Lane not to cover Superman related stories.

He winced. Even Adrien, with all of that model training, didn't manage to keep his grimace in. The blond recovered quickly, though. He smiled and shook his head, seemingly amused, before joining Nino on the bed.

"I'm alright with the interview thing, but we'll have to discuss it first," he said. Then he shot a worried look at Alya and swallowed. "I mean, it's not like I want to hide the truth, but we can't tell it _all_. It would endanger everyone, there could be backlash, some-"

Alya gave him a pointed look. He slammed his mouth shut.

"Way ahead of you," the blogger told him, pointing at her screen. "I have two pieces waiting to be published. The first is a timeline of the events from your akumatization to Hawk Moth's defeat, _with no real names_. A lot of people saw me transform back and forth, so my own secret identity is toast. Aurore doesn't even want one. Theo and your dad should be in the clear, though. If the press had something on them, it would be out by now. Lady Wifi and Stormy Weather footage is all over the news. Some old videos of the Bubbler, too, but the Bubbler didn't broadcast himself on gigantic screens all over Paris. _Anyway_ I tried to make it clear that the magic is gone. From everyone. Including Hawk Moth."

Adrien cleared his throat.

"Actually, we have Chloé to thank for that," he revealed. "She didn't just _give me_ the videos. She has full access to the hotel's security system. The whole time we were fighting, or when the adults were mind-controlled… Chloé was in her room watching it all, copying the footage to her tablet… and deleting it from the main server."

"She did that?" Nino and Alya exclaimed in one voice.

"Iiiiiiii'm pretty certain she'll attempt to blackmail my father into designing a dress for her and I'll probably have to save her life if she does, but… yes, she did that. She is Ladybug's 'number one fan'. She covered for us all."

"How is 'Marinette being Ladybug' going over?" Alya asked, with a wolfish grin.

The heroine had gone in and out of her transformation several times in the hotel, Nino remembered. There was no way she had escaped the security cameras. Not in the main hall.

"Uh, ah, hum," Adrien replied. "It could be worse? I mean… I know you have valid reasons not to like Chloé, but the people she cares about - like Sabrina or her dad or _Ladybug_ \- she _really_ cares about, in her own way. Not that she knows how to treat them right. But when I went to see her this morning, she was waiting for me with her tablet and a flash drive. Said our secrets were safe with her."

"That's… good?" Nino replied, wondering what the conditions were and when the extortion would start. "So she asked you to come just for that?"

"She didn't ask me to come," his best friend corrected. "I went. First thing in the morning. A lot happened this week and there were news I wanted to tell her myself."

"You just said she was waiting for you," the DJ pointed out.

"Yes." - He made a point of turning to Alya before changing topics. - "So what's the second article?"

"An analysis of the nature of Akuma and Hawk Moth. Won't be posted for a while, though. I wanted to have Tikki proof-read it, but she is grounded."

Plagg flew out of the cheetos bag.

"Grounded?"

"Grounded," the blogger repeated. "Marinette _and_ Tikki. Marinette's mom has them both doing chores and won't let them out of her sight for the day."

The two boys and the Kwami gaped, then Plagg started howling in laughter.

Alya grabbed her mouse and turned to her screen, navigating from screen to screen to locate a text document. She gestured at Adrien, who joined her and leaned closer to get a better look.

"I thought you could give it a look," she told him. "Spellcheck it. Factcheck it."

"Mostly spellcheck it," Nino piped.

The blogger threw an unopened bag of marshmallows at his face.

"Go get my dad's laptop," she told him. "I'm going to need help to edit all of that footage."

"Can I eat the marshmallows first?"

"You can eat the marshmallows _while_."

"Can I eat _some_ marshmallows first, then?"

Plagg was still laughing, mumbling the occasional 'a millennia old deity, grounded!' and 'I like that cookie mom'. His chosen dragged a chair to Alya's desk then sat down to read. Nino joined him, peeking at the first paragraph.

 _'It ended quietly enough,'_ Alya had written, _'with droplets of black magic trickling down from a young girl's balled fist and into the river below. With the rain drumming against the Seine's turbulent waters, those droplets could have gone unnoticed. They made no ripple. They made no sound. As they hit the water, however, they turned to smoke. The smoke spiraled up in twirling tendrils that faded into translucent fog that faded into nothing. And then, just like that, Hawk Moth was gone._

 _But before that, there was a storm.'_

###

Chat Noir had spell-checked all thirteen pages of Alya's article (which she would both make shorter, to publish on her blog, and longer, because she would be turning it into a book). He had helped Nino with the video editing _and_ the marshmallows.

Later in the day, he had endured Alix and Jalil's constant bickering. His classmate had not been allowed to leave home without supervision, so her brother had followed her to Alya's, where he had managed to offend _everyone_ in some way. Mostly, he had argued with his sister. Alix had blamed him for not telling her their dad had once been a superhero. Jalil had taken that accusation (and the information that his father had once been a superhero) with vexed stupefaction. It had led to a long-winded discussion on what he _had_ known or not.

"You knew what to tell him to bring his memories back," Alix had insisted.

To which Jalil had replied "I didn't know what it would do! But when I saw that black 'cat'" - He had pointed at Plagg. - "I had flashbacks of a green creature just like it, telling me to touch dad's wrist and say those words if we were ever in danger. That's it. I had dreams about that 'Kwami' since I was a child. I always thought they were some kind of remnant of that Ninja Turtles show you forced me to watch."

Adrien had wanted to ask them about their father and his being Clover, but their argument had quickly moved to the Pharaoh incident, and how Jalil couldn't fathom why people mocked his interest in magic when superpowered beings roamed the city three days a week. Alix had retorted that his interest in magic had nearly released whatever it was that he would have released if Alya had been sacrificed. She was willing to bet it would not have been an Egyptian princess.

Plagg had been unable to provide them with a definite answer.

After that, Aurore Borell had showed up, and their group had been so busy editing videos, checking the news and coming up with synonyms that the day had passed in a blink. Mrs Césaire had insisted they could stay for dinner, so they had, and Adrien was still reeling. He was not used to crowded family meals and had been more than a little overwhelmed.

He had asked Alya how many sisters she had.

Her answer had been 'forty-two'.

It was well past nine when he had left his friend's home, walking with Nino for two streets before they had parted ways. Then Adrien had transformed and made his way to the Dupain-Cheng's bakery.

He landed on Marinette's balcony, knocking a flower pot down in the process. He caught the flower pot. He fought with it for five solid minutes, trying to put it back where it belonged and failing. Eventually, he gave up, put the thing down and went to knock on the trapdoor that led to Marinette's room.

The trapdoor opened on Sabine Dupain-Cheng.

"Chat Noir," she greeted him with a polite smile. "How nice of you to drop by."

Adrien choked on his own saliva, spluttered and coughed out a 'g-goough eneving'.

Sabine's serene smile did not falter.

"I'm sure my daughter would tremendously appreciate your visit. Unfortunately, she is grounded."

"I. Ah. S-see," Chat Noir replied. "I c-can come back another day, if you don't object, that is. I wouldn't want to-"

"However," Marinette's mother continued, " _if_ you were to ring the doorbell and go through the traditional trial of meeting your girlfriend's father, you _might_ be allowed to join us and Tikki for a game of Trivial Pursuit."

###

"FIFTY-SEVEN THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-SIX UNIQUE VISITORS!" Alya yelled at twenty past two in the morning, on the second day after Hawk Moth's defeat.

###

At twenty past two on the second day after Hawk Moth's defeat, Adrien was staring at the ceiling of his bedroom.

After untransforming and ringing the Dupain-Cheng's doorbell as requested, he had played Trivial Pursuit with Marinette and her parents and Tikki (but not Plagg, Plagg had slept through it) for the best part of an hour. After that, as it was getting late, Tom had walked him home. The baker had asked him if everything was fine with his father, to which Adrien had answered "yes, don't worry!".

Then the boy had walked into the empty mansion and listened to the crushing silence.

No one had been waiting for him to come home. There had been some light in his father's office - he had seen it from outside - but Adrien had not dared to go knock on that door. He had tried for hours the previous night, and in the morning too. Gabriel had never even replied. Makko had phased through the door to let Adrien know she was handling things. "Give him time," the pink Kwami had said.

Time.

Nathalie was gone and the Gorilla was not back yet.

The house sounded so still that Adrien felt like he couldn't breathe.

At least Plagg was there. The Kwami had curled in a ball on top of his chosen's chest, and made little wheezing sounds in his sleep. That helped.

###

Marinette was late for school.

It was not out of the ordinary. Granted, in most cases, she ended up late because someone needed rescuing (or because he had overslept). It was somehow uncommon for her to arrive early then to spend thirty minutes freaking out at the corner of the street.

She was not altogether certain of who knew she was Ladybug and who did not. Those thirty minutes had been spent coming up with a perfect cover story that involved a twice-removed cousin from China who looked a lot like her, a helicopter trip, a bad case of the flu and several trained pet monkeys.

"Marinette, just _go in_ ," Tikki sighed.

The teenager took a deep breath and did as commanded.

As she discovered ten seconds later, her being late was not much of a problem, because all of her classmates were still in the schoolyard, with no teachers in sight.

Alya was the center of attention, standing in a corner with Nino by her side. She was being questioned by an enthusiastic Rose and a quieter but just as fascinated Nathanaël, while Juleka, Ivan, Mylène and Max listened to her every word.

Adrien was leaning against a wall two steps away. At first, Marinette did not spot him, as Ivan was standing between them, but it only took a few steps for her partner to get in her line of sight. She saw him perk up when he noticed her. His soft smile turned into a grin. He all but leaped away from the wall, trotting to her.

"Princess!" he greeted her, bowing low with a flourish and taking her hand to kiss it.

She squeaked.

He chuckled.

She squeaked again.

He _laughed_ , delighted, and kissed her hand again. At that point, she recovered and booped him on the nose, before poking his chin to force him to stand up.

They had forgotten the rest of the world. The rest of the world reminded them of its existence.

"You _really_ are Chat Noir!" Rose exclaimed.

The blonde had magically appeared right next to them, along with the rest of the class. Well, most of the class. Chloé was standing at the other end of the schoolyard with Sabrina, sulking. But most of the class had followed Adrien when he had made his way to Marinette.

He turned to Rose and gave her a sweet smile.

"Come on, we went over this, everyone. I was Picture Perfect, and then I was just me. I showed you to footage of me standing right next to _both_ Chat Noir and Copycat."

"There is still a distinct possibility that the footage is fake," Max commented. "Not to mention magic was involved. There is a fifty-five percent chance that there is some kind of illusion at work."

Adrien sighed, not in annoyance but amusement.

"If you want to talk to a Chat Noir, you should just ask Alix. She had the ring for a while. Didn't you, Alix?"

Their pink-haired friend barely bothered looking their way.

"Yep."

" _Really?_ " Nathanaël blurted out, before realizing how loud he had been. He lowered his voice. "I mean, really?"

"Yeah, yeah," Alix replied, staring at her phone. "For, like, twenty minutes? Then I gave the ring back."

" _Really?_ " Rose gasped.

"Yep," the skater said. "I don't need superpowers to kick ass. Just ask Kim."

Everyone turned to Kim, who raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, right, no you don't. Kick ass, I mean."

"Oh _yeah_?" Alix replied with a smirk. "Wanna put it to the test, Titmouse?"

"What did you just call me?"

"Looks like we're putting it to the test," the pink-haired girl commented, grinning.

The rest of the class watched her bolt. Kim chased after her, following her through the main doors and into the street.

Marinette cleared her throat.

"Don't we have class?" she asked.

"Nope!" Alya announced. "Miss Bustier drove herself and her family to Nice after Schedule Conflict's mind-control was lifted. She won't be coming back until next Monday."

"That… makes a lot of sense," the young designer replied.

She was unused to seeing the citizens of Paris take drastic measures to get themselves out of danger, but she entirely approved of Miss Bustier's methods. On a normal day, she would have commented that going as far as Nice was overdoing it, but it had been a rough week.

Adrien wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"We'll have chemistry this afternoon." - Someone mumbled 'you have chemistry, period.' - "But in the meantime, we're supposed to be waiting for a substitute. We're also supposed to wait for them _inside_ the classroom, but Alix was having none of that."

Marinette relaxed against him.

Max stared at them, squinting. He looked at Adrien's arm. He looked at Marinette. He looked at Adrien himself.

"I still think there is a trick," he announced.

Marinette frowned. Then, realizing she was not hearing quite as much 'so you are Ladybug?' variations as she had expected, she frowned some more. She had lost track of how many times she had transformed in front of witnesses over the last few days. Had the news of her identity not travelled?

She knew footage existed, but that it was in Adrien's possession.

Maybe she was just _lucky_.

Adrien grinned at Max.

"I am not Chat Noir," he swore. "I can even prove it."

His classmate narrowed his eyes.

"If you have tangible, verifiable proof…"

The model pointed up.

Chat Noir - or at least someone who looked exactly like Chat Noir, with the same costume, the same looks and the same cheeky grin - waved at them from the railing of the first floor's stairs landing.

Marinette's train of thought started doing cartwheels.

 _Theo? THEO? THEO. Theo. Theo! IS THAT THEO?_

They still had their powers?

"I can guarantee mister Agreste is not me," Copycat announced. "I know I'm supposed to have nine lives, but not at the same time, you know?"

Most of their group gaped.

Alya grinned.

"Hey, Chat! D'you have fifteen minutes to spare for an exclusive interview for the Ladyblog?" she asked.

Copycat laughed.

"I'm on patrol, unfortunately. Later today?" he offered, bowing.

"I'll be waiting!" the blogger replied, waving at him.

Marinette watched Theo grin, wave back and climb back to the roof.

 _They still have their powers?_

###

It took lunch break and Adrien kissing Marinette for Alya to find an opportunity to escape her inquisitive classmates. She scampered, dragging Nino to the roof.

The first words out of her mouth were "Copycat still has his powers".

The next were " _do you?_ ".

In all honesty, there were millions of things Nino wanted from life, but the Bubbler's powers were far down the list. Saving the world was cool and all, and flying was better than taking the bus, he supposed, but he had to work on his first album and the video clips for it. Anyway, with Hawk Moth gone, what was the point of being a superhero? Adrien and Marinette were good enough of a team to protect the city from falling planes and muggers.

Did he want superpowers? Well, yeah, why not? But the idea didn't elicit more than his lukewarm interest.

"I… haven't checked?" he replied, patting his pockets.

He couldn't find his bubble wand. As far as he remembered, he had last seen it next to the kitchen sink at home.

Alya groaned, got her phone out and tried to pause him.

It didn't work.

"Well, that's disappointing," she said before looking down at her phone with a preoccupied expression and shrieking. "NOT AGAIN!"

She got her tablet out of her bag and sat cross-legged on the floor, cursing under her breath. Nino crouched and peeked at her screen.

"What's going on?"

"Server's down," she mumbled. "It's getting thousands of requests a minute, the database keeps crashing. And earlier the access logs grew so large they filled the hard drive, so I had to turn them off. And did I mention the load is through the roof? I should have moved it to a better dedicated server but my parents said the one I had in mind was too expensive."

The DJ stared at her, understanding about none of that. He knew the Ladyblog had trouble staying online - he had heard the same rant the previous day while editing the footage Adrien had brought them - but his technical knowledge was limited. He didn't manage both their school's website and a popular blog.

"How am I supposed to SSH into the thing with a tablet?" his friend ranted. "I should have taken Dad's laptop."

"Uh," Nino replied, because some kind of verbal input was needed at that point.

Alya sighed.

"That's it, as soon as I get home, I'm moving the website."

The boy nodded and prayed for a diversion. It came in the form of a beep from his classmate's phone. She checked it, murmuring something about an email from Aurore, then spent two minutes reading. Her eyebrows traveled up and down and up again.

"She says lawyers showed up at her place and threatened the press with legal action."

"Lawyers?" Nino repeated. "Press?"

"Apparently, there was a crowd in front of her home, news vans and such. And the lawyers arrived out of nowhere, went straight for the journalists, and got them to leave. Obviously, Aurore is not happy about that. She wanted to be on the news."

"She'll find a way to be on the news, lawyers or not. Who sent them, though?"

Alya wrinkled her nose and looked at the sky, thinking hard about that question.

"You know, that explains things," she mused. "I _had_ been wondering why the press wasn't harassing us. I mean, I expected Nadja Chamack to pay me a visit or something. We should have seen a swarm of journalists waiting at our doors. But… nothing."

"Maybe Adrien's old man threw money at the problem?"

"No," a tiny voice chimed in. "It's not Gabriel."

The two teenagers jumped and looked up to find Makko hovering above them. The Kwami landed on the edge of Alya's tablet.

She gave them a warm smile.

"Hello!"

"H-hello?" Nino replied, blinking.

His friend's reaction was a bit less reserved.

"IhavesomanyquestionsohwowI'msogladyou'reherehowcomeCopycatcanstill…" - She gasped. - "TransformandifitsnotmisterAgrestethenwhosentthelawyers?"

The pink butterfly blinked. It took her a moment to translate that outburst into separate words.

"I don't know who sent the lawyers," she said, "but Copycat still has his powers because he asked for them."

"He _did_?" the two teenagers exclaimed.

Makko nodded.

"I went…" - She braced herself. - "I went to see him. I wanted to visit all of you. First to tell you what an _amazing_ job you did over the last few days, but also to apologize for possessing you in the first place. All of what happened is my fault, and I wanted you to know how _sorry_ I am."

"Heh, don't sweat it," Nino commented. "A) It's all Hawk Moth's fault, not yours. B) We kind of know what happens to the thinking process of an Evilized person. We _know_ you were totally hijacked."

Alya turned to him, eyebrows raised, and studied his face. A few seconds later, she nodded, looking at Makko.

"What he said," the blogger told the Kwami.

The sprite giggled, flying up to Alya and twirling around her head. She ended her fight next to the girl's cheek, against which she nuzzled for an instant. Then, she moved away and hovered above Alya's tablet.

"As for the powers," she said, "Theo pointed out that Adrien needed to rest - which is definitely true - and that showing up as Chat Noir would allay the suspicions about his secret identity."

Nino had to admit it was a sound plan.

"Just in case… He doesn't happen to be able to turn into Ladybug, does he? Cause that would come in handy. Marinette is going to need an alibi too."

Makko grinned.

###

"No, but who is _that_?" Marinette whispered when Ladybug landed on the roof of the school, getting every student and teacher to look up in awe.

Alya, next to her, raised her phone and started filming the superhero. Adrien just gaped. Above them, 'Ladybug' leaped out of sight.

"No," Marinette repeated, idly petting her ears to check if her earrings were still present, "but _seriously_ , who is that?"

###

Adrien dropped the 'bug' puns. He had to. He didn't want to lose his best friend. Nino was _done_ with the puns. Still, right before Nino ran off to catch his bus after school, Adrien was sorely tempted to drop a last 'as long as it did not bug you'.

Plagg and Makko, hidden under his shirt, were giggling.

Nino's mood was more on the sulky side. His classmate did not see why: he had made a very convincing Ladybug.

"Come on," the model told the DJ. "No one will ever know."

"Alix has not stopped laughing in the last three hours," Nino retorted. "Fairly sure she told Aurore already, too."

" _But_ Marinette is still trying to figure it out!" Adrien announced to console him.

His best friend chuckled.

"Dude, seriously?"

"Seriously. Alya won't tell her and I pretended not to know. Marinette is going crazy."

"Pretty sure Tikki could tell her."

"But where would be the fun in that?" Plagg piped, slipping his head out from under his chosen's shirt.

Nino laughed then waved, pointing at his bus stop.

"Need to run," he told Adrien. "Hey, your chauffeur isn't here to pick you up?"

"He texted me," Adrien lied. "He's stuck in traffic, he'll be here soon."

In truth, he had a growing suspicion that the Gorilla had been fired for not noticing his secret identity, like Nathalie. The man had not showed up since Adrien had sent him away with Hawk Moth's cane. He had called after the battle to inform Adrien that the weapon had vanished, so the boy knew the bodyguard was fine. But that was it.

"Well then see you tomorrow, dude," Nino exclaimed, racing to his stop to catch the bus that had just parked there.

Adrien waited and watched the bus drive away with Nino in it, waving at his friend through the window. He counted to twenty then started walking home. Plagg and Makko bickered the entire way.

The two Kwami went silent when Adrien walked into the mansion.

The boy's footsteps echoed in the hallway. The noise the door made when he closed them behind him was deafening.

Makko darted out of under his shirt.

"I'll go check on Gabriel," she announced.

Adrien nodded, dragging himself up the stairs to his bedroom. All of the fun and happiness he had felt that day was fading away.

He walked into his room and found a pastry box on his desk, along with a note in his father's handwriting.

'Mrs Dupain-Cheng dropped by and did not come empty handed,' it said. 'Make sure to give her a call to thank her.'

The boy sighed. He was used to being avoided but it didn't stop him from feeling awful.

He stared at the box. His appetite had deserved him, but he still opened the box. Plagg dove and sniffed the macarons, scoffed and flew away. Adrien forced himself to eat a handful of them.

Then he ate the rest, because they were amazing.

###

Adrien woke at seven with a stomach ache and a newfound sense of determination.

He called Marinette's mother to thank her for the macaron and, more importantly, to thank her for dropping by to check on his father. Sabine had come during school hours, so the intent behind her visit was clear.

After that call, he showered, dressed himself, gathered his courage and walked out of his room with a single goal: drag his father out of his office.

Maybe Adrien would have to Cataclysm the door off. He would, if things came to that.

He made it to the hallway, where he found Nathalie waiting by the dining room door with a tablet.

"Nathalie?" the boy gasped, happily surprised. He smiled. "Father rehired you?"

The woman looked up, lips pursed in mild annoyance.

"Hello, Adrien. No, he did not, _but_ there is such a thing as a one month notice and I felt like he would need an assistant. How are you?"

"I'm fine," he replied, just a little hesitant. He didn't dare mention the situation with his father. "Things have been hectic but… quieter, and nice, and…" - He looked at his feet. - "Nathalie, I'm sorry I got you fired."

" _You_ didn't get me fired," she mumbled. " _So_. I assume your father has spent the last few days working?"

"I, he, ah…"

"He _did_ ," Nathalie exclaimed, wincing.

Adrien scratched the back of his neck, uneasy. Well, at least, he didn't have to explain matters. His father's assistant sighed. The teenager tried to explain the problem away.

"It's not an easy situation for him," he said. "Makko - his Kwami - has been keeping him company."

Nathalie sucked her lips in, leaving a lipstick stain on her front teeth.

"I knew I should have come back earlier," she said. "I know your father is prone to shutting everyone out when overwhelmed, this was bound to happen." - She shook her head. - "I needed to handle the journalists, however. I was busy."

The boy blinked.

"Journalists? Wait! _You_ are the one who sent the lawyers?" - That question got him a nod. - "Alya has been going _crazy_ trying to figure it out."

Nathalie clicked her tongue.

"Someone had to do something, and handling journalists is part of my usual duties, so I was best qualified to intervene. If I can keep the press away from a teenage supermodel, I can keep it away from teenage superheroes."

He chuckled.

"Just so you know, Aurore Borell _wants_ the press to harass her. She's sulking about not being allowed her moment of fame."

Nathalie gave him a pointed glance.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. She'd rather be a superstar than a superhero. I can't say I understand her, but…"

"I will call the lawyers off, then," the assistant replied.

Adrien shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

"So… What now?"

"Now," Nathalie said, "I will drive you to your piano lesson - since there is no one else to do it - and then I will talk to your father."

###

By 'talking to', Nathalie had meant 'shouting at', as Adrien discovered three hours later, when he slipped into the mansion as Chat Noir, having made his own way home after waiting half an hour out of the Conservatory for someone to come pick him up.

###

A few days went by.

In a perfect world, with Hawk Moth gone, there would have been no need for heroes. Unfortunately, there was no shortage of petty criminals, sinking barges, crashing helicopters, house fires and climbing-challenged cats. Ladybug and Chat Noir patrolled every night.

They were not _that_ busy saving the world, because a picture of them kissing made it to the front page of _Paris Match_.

Marinette dutifully texted her parents to tell them when she had to skip school to rescue the citizen of Paris. Adrien texted Theo, because Nathalie was not quite as lenient on his activities as Tom and Sabine.

When Ladybug and Chat Noir couldn't make it, a new heroine - going by the name 'Signal Boost' - handled things. Her pinkish violet costume, with a glowing white wifi symbol on the chest, was strangely reminiscent of Lady Wifi's. When people questioned her about the resemblance, Alya's answer was always 'Nah. Totally different person!'. If people asked Nino, he would tell them he didn't see the resemblance at all.

Not that Nino had a lot of time to discuss the topic. He was too busy working on the Ladyblog. The website _had_ moved to a better server (paid for by the advertising bought by Gabriel Agreste's company, after Alya had made it clear to Nathalie Sancoeur that she would _not_ forgot mister Agreste's business offer). The blog now stayed online whether it got thirty thousand visitors a day or not, which meant there was an insane amount of comments to moderate and answer to. Nino did the answering. Alya was too busy writing.

The book ('Hawk Moth's fall', but that was a working title since everyone who had heard it thought it sucked) was coming along nicely. Alya had twelve chapters, all of them filled with words, action and exclamation marks. Conversations were held on the topic. Concerned friends questioned the sanity of writing forty-five thousand words in the span of a week. Moderately concerned bystanders (namely a squishy destruction god named Plagg) questioned the quality of the writing. The concerned bystander was described as an 'obnoxious flying rat' in chapter four, but that part had to be removed at Tikki's request. She admitted the description was strikingly accurate, but the Kwami could not be mentioned in a published book.

Alix did kick Kim's ass.

Aurore, who was even more ridiculously photogenic than Adrien Agreste, got offered the part of a teenage caped crusader in an upcoming TV show. That was just the right amount of superstar and superhero for her. She gave up on journalism. Alya thanked the gods. Plagg replied with a 'don't mention it, I did nothing'.

###

Eight days after Hawk Moth's defeat, Adrien came home from school and opened the doors to find his father standing at the top of the stairs, with his back turned to the entrance.

It was the first time Gabriel emerged from his office in a week, so his son frozen in surprise. The boy relaxed as relief and wonder washed over him.

Gabriel was looking up at the framed picture on the landing, except the picture was no longer the dark family portrait that had been hanging there just that morning, but a bright painting of a much younger Adrien and his mother. It was a reproduction of the photograph of them the boy liked best, and seeing it displayed there warmed his heart.

Hesitantly, he climbed the stairs, joining his father on the landing. Gabriel had clasped his hands behind his back but Adrien could read the minute signs of nervousness in him: he was tapping his wrist with a finger, his shoulders shifted and, from up close, you could hear his breath catch.

"Father?" the teenager called after stopping just at arm's length.

Gabriel stared at the portrait for a second more then smiled and turned to him.

"I felt like some change was long overdue," he said. "What do you think?"

"I… I think you were right," Adrien replied, looking up at his mother's portrait.

He felt a grin crawl up his face.

His father let out a contented sigh. A moment later, he put his hand on Adrien's shoulder, pulling him close.

"I'm sorry for the way I acted this week. I… needed… I needed to sort through my thoughts, things were…"

"It's alright," Adrien murmured, leaning closer.

"It's not."

"It is. Makko was keeping me updated. Sort of. And anyway, Nathalie already gave you a 'stern talking-to'."

"That she did," his father replied, his voice soft.

"Are you feeling better?" the teenager asked, even if the answer was obvious.

Gabriel squeezed his shoulder and nodded. Then he pulled away and fished a little envelope out of his jacket's pocket. He gave it to his son, who opened it to find his mother's necklace. He lifted it up, letting the flower pendant swing back and forth.

Alice was wearing that pendant on the painting.

"You should have this," his father told him. "God knows there is very little left to remember your mother by, but that necklace meant a lot to her. She would have wanted you to have it."

Adrien cupped the golden flower in the palm of his hand, studying the delicate petal outlines drawn around the pearl center.

"It was a gift from you, wasn't it?" he asked. He immediately amended his question. "You made it for her."

The only reaction he got was an amused snort. Then again, it had been a silly question. Of course, his father had designed it for her.

Gabriel dropped the topic entirely, turning to him and clasping his hands behind his back.

"Makko tells me Copycat has been saving Paris and your school grades all at once," he announced, with the faintest teasing smirk.

Adrien's eyes went wide. He swallowed and cleared his throat.

"Kind of. Yes. He's doing a great job, too!" he replied, looking from left to right and up and down and, more generally, at everything but his father.

He could feel Gabriel's eyes on him.

" _However_ ," the man drawled, "I am going to assume that Copycat is not the young hero who made it to the front page of Paris Match with a certain spotted young lady."

Adrien blushed so hard he felt like he matched Ladybug's suit.

"I-I-I-I ah."

His father raised an eyebrow.

The teenager took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I know you don't want me to be Chat Noir, I just…"

Gabriel put a hand on his shoulder

"It's fine," he murmured.

Those words had obviously cost him. He closed his eyes and breathed in, then made them turn to the family portrait.

"You have to understand… No matter how great a hero you are, and you are a great hero... No matter how skilled… It's scary from where I stand. It's terrifying. When I was partnering with Aricia, I would get worried, I would get afraid… I do believe you know exactly what I mean by that, what with miss Dupain-Cheng being such a daring young girl."

Adrien nodded, his breath catching in his throat. Oh yes, he understood.

His father went on.

"Well, when it is your _child_ running into danger, it multiplies tenfold. It is overwhelming."

The boy put his hand on the one Gabriel had put on his shoulder. His dad's second hand joined it.

"That being said," the stylist continued, "you _are_ good at this. You have more than proven yourself. So I will _try_ not to interfere too much."

Adrien gaped, staring at him with wide eyes.

Gabriel smiled to him.

"Also, thank you for saving me."

###

"It's no good!" Alya exclaimed, throwing her hands up and rolling away from her desk.

She made her chair spin, staring at the ceiling.

Her friends had definitely heard that before. Adrien and Marinette exchanged a cautious look. Nino sighed. The sisters, who were peeking into Alya's bedroom through a crack in the door, whispered a few words to each other.

The DJ was the first to dare breaking the silence.

"It's _fine_ , Alya. We've read and reread and rerererererereread that chapter, and every chapter, and everything is as good as it can get."

"You wouldn't know! You are not writers. There is something _missing_."

A few things were missing from the book, namely the existence of Kwami, the real names of the heroes and Plot Hole's horrendous prose, which Alya had 'improved' for the sake of readability. In other words, the novel wasn't missing anything crucial.

"Nothing is missing," Nino snapped, because he had tried to convince her of that for days now, and he was fed up. "And I'll let you know I write too. Some."

"IT IS ALL WRONG!" Alya yelled, rolling back to her desk and glowering at her screen. "And I have to fix it! The gofundme campaign for the print version blew up, Nathanaël finished his illustrations ages ago, the editor is waiting for the text, I need to finish it and send it in."

The DJ sighed. So did Adrien and Marinette. So did Tikki, who was usually the most patient of them all. Plagg wasn't listening. Plagg was being fed cheetos by the youngest Little Sister.

Nino joined Alya, commandeering her chair and sitting in front of her computer. A text editor was open on the first page of the Novel-With-A-Sucky-Working-Title. The boy read the first page all over _again_.

"There is nothing wrong," he said. "Well, there is an extra period on the first line of the third paragraph, but that's about it."

Alya smashed the keyboard to fix that mistake then moved back and took a deep, aggravated breath.

"You don't get it. The opening lines of a novel have to be gripping. They have to keep the reader _reading_ , and that won't do the job."

They all knew the first lines. Alya had used them on her short article on Hawk Moth's defeat, on the blog, and they all thought they were very nice lines. Very visual. Perfectly fine.

Marinette groaned.

"I think you've read them over so often you don't feel the impact anymore, Alya."

The writer raised her hands.

"No, no, no, that's not that. I need a better incipit. Some kind of preface. Something short, that catches the eye."

"Just have Nathanaël draw another picture?" Nino mumbled.

Alya shot daggers at him.

Adrien, always helpful, tried to defuse the situation.

"Maybe a quote?" he suggested. "We could help you look for one."

The aspiring author froze and stared at him. After a minute, Nino poked her to check if she had not magically paralyzed herself or something like that.

"I'VE GOT IT!" she shrieked, grinning.

She shoved Nino off her chair and sat down, grabbing the keyboard and starting to type furiously. She stopped not ten seconds later.

"Here!" she announced with a victorious smile, leaning back and pointing at the screen.

They all got closer to read the new opening lines.

 _'Hope is not in the heroes, but in normal people realizing they can accomplish the extraordinary.'_

 _\- Aricia_

###


End file.
